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Liberty  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century 


BY 


FREDERIC    MAY    HOLLAND 

AUTHOR   OF   "stories   FROM    BROWNING,"    "  THE    RISE  OF    INTELLECTUAL 
LIBERTY,"     "FREDERICK   DOUGLASS,"    ETC. 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S   SONS 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

Cbe  IknicherbocFicr  press 

1899 


Copyright,  1899 

BV 

FREDERIC  MAY  HOLLAND 
Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall,  London 


TTbe  ftnicberbociiec  ]pree0,  "Rew  JQorft 


PREFACE 


THIS  book  is  a  result  of  having  studied  the  de- 
velopment of  poHtical  and  rehgious  Hberty  for 
forty  years.  How  well  I  have  selected  my  author- 
ities the  reader  can  judge.  I  will  merely  say  that  I 
have  mentioned  no  writer  whom  I  have  not  studied 
carefully.  The  sun-dial  has  been  so  far  my  model 
that  victories  in  the  cause  of  freedom  are  more 
prominent  than  defeats  in  the  pages  that  follow.  It 
did  not  seem  necessary  to  give  much  space  to 
familiar  authors,  though  I  should  have  liked  to  do 
justice  to  Buckle,  George  Eliot,  and  Swinburne. 

I  regret  that  I  have  been  unable  to  tell  at  any 
adequate  length  how  the  Republic  which  was  pro- 
claimed at  Paris  in  1870  has  survived  longer  than 
any  other  government  set  up  in  France  during  the 
century.  Its  enemies  have  been  voted  down  re- 
peatedly everywhere;  the  schools  have  been  made 
free  from  ecclesiastical  control;  and  the  hostility  of 
the  clergy  has  been  suppressed  by  the  Pope.  The 
French  are  still  too  fond  of  military  glory,  and  too 
ignorant  of  the  value  of  personal  liberty  and  local 
self-government;  but  rapid  advance  in  freedom  is 
already  possible  under  the  Constitution  of  1884. 
Not  only  France,  but  also  Great  Britain,  Canada, 


iv  Preface 

and  Australia,  give  proof  that  the  time  has  gone  by 
wlien  Americans  had  any  right  to  claim,  as  they  did 
in  my  boyhood,  to  be  the  only  people  able  to  gov- 
ern themselves. 

If  any  nation  can  maintain  a  free  press,  just  laws, 
and  elections  of  local  magistrates,  it  ought  to  enjoy 
these  rights,  however  slight  may  be  its  fitness  for 
becoming  a  real  republic;  and  the  suppression  of 
such  rights  by  Cromwell  and  Napoleon  cannot  be 
pardoned  consistently  by  any  friend  to  liberty. 
Napoleon's  chief  guilt,  as  I  must  here  mention,  was 
in  ordering  the  expulsion  from  office  by  soldiers,  in 
1797,  of  representatives  of  the  people  who  were 
striving  to  maintain  liberty  at  home  and  establish 
peace  abroad.  If  there  were  any  necessity  for  his 
usurpation  two  years  later,  it  was  largely  of  his  own 
making.  Despotism  had  already  been  made  toler- 
able, however,  even  during  the  first  Republic,  by 
the  national  fondness  for  war.  This  is  according  to 
a  principle  which  is  taught  by  Herbert  Spencer,  and 
which  is  illustrated  in  the  following  pages  by  many 
instances  from  the  history  of  France  and  other 
nations.  The  horrors  of  the  Reign  of  Terror  may  be 
explained,  though  not  excused,  by  the  greatness  of 
the  danger  from  invaders  as  well  as  rebels.  And 
there  were  very  few  cases  of  punishing  differences 
merely  about  religion  by  the  guillotine. 

I  have  also  tried  to  show  how  the  centralising 
tendencies  of  a  government  are  strengthened  by  the 
wish  of  its  citizens  to  gain  private  advantages  by 
state  aid.  John  Stuart  Mill  and  Herbert  Spencer 
have  published  timely  warnings  against  the  danger 
of  checking  the  development  of  individual  energy 


Preface  v 

and  ability  by  meddlesome  laws.  Whether  the 
power  of  the  government  ought  to  be  reduced  to 
the  narrow  limits  proposed  by  these  great  thinkers, 
is  a  question  which  has  been  discussed  at  some 
length  in  my  last  chapter.  It  is  there  suggested 
that  such  a  reduction  would  be  much  more  practica- 
ble in  the  case  of  national  than  of  local  governments. 
It  is  not  likely  to  be  made  anywhere  at  present ;  but 
it  might  be  well  for  reformers  to  try  to  restrict  the 
operations  of  governments  according  to  the  follow- 
ing rule :  nothing  to  be  undertaken  by  a  national 
government  which  can  be  done  as  well  by  munici- 
palities; and  nothing  to  be  attempted  by  either  a 
local  or  central  government  which  can  be  done  as 
well  by  private  citizens,  acting  singly  or  in  voluntary 
associations.  This  rule  would  justify  towns  and 
cities  in  taking  such  care  of  roads,  streets,  and  schools 
as  is  not  sanctioned  by  Spencer;  but  it  would  leave 
municipalities  free  to  decide  the  question  whether 
they  ought  to  carry  on  gas-  and  water-works,  electric 
roads,  and  other  enterprises  according  to  the  merits 
of  each  special  case.  Here  in  America  internal  im- 
provements seem  to  be  the  proper  charge  of  the 
State,  rather  than  of  the  nation ;  but  whether  the 
former  has  any  right  to  enforce  Sunday  laws,  and 
the  latter  to  impose  protective  tariffs,  are  questions 
which  I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  discussing  thor- 
oughly. Herbert  Spencer  should  not  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  any  opinions  not  printed  plainly  as  his. 
Most  of  the  instances  of  the  working  of  Sunday 
statutes  were  taken  from  a  religious  newspaper  en- 
titled The  American  Sentinel.  Among  very  recent 
cases  are  these.     A  Georgian  was  sentenced  on  May 


vi  Preface 

i6,  1899,  to  pay  a  fine  of  twenty  dollars  or  spend  six 
months  in  the  chain-gang  for  working  on  his  farm. 
That  same  month  a  clergyman  was  arrested  in  Mis- 
sissippi, merely  for  taking  a  little  exercise  with  a  hoe 
in  his  garden.  In  1898,  a  farmer  in  the  State  of 
New  York  was  arrested  for  picking  a  few  apples  from 
one  of  his  own  trees.  The  total  number  of  Sabbath- 
breakers  arrested  that  year  in  New  Yoik  City  is  es- 
timated at  a  thousand;  and  there  were  nearly  four 
thousand  arrests  for  Sunday  trading  in  England  and 
Wales  in  1897. 

The  principle  of  giving  each  citizen  every  oppor- 
tunity of  development  compatible  with  the  general 
welfare,  is  so  plainly  irreconcilable  with  Socialism, 
that  I  have  thought  it  well  to  give  several  instances 
of  the  fact  that  a  man  seldom  does  his  best  work 
except  for  his  own  benefit  and  that  of  his  family. 
Even  the  exceptionally  energetic  and  conscientious 
founders  of  New  England  did  not  raise  food  enough 
until  it  was  agreed  that  "  They  should  set  corne, 
every  man  for  his  own  particular."  Another  diffi- 
culty in  the  way  of  state  Socialism  is  that  the  requis- 
ite number  of  competent  managers  could  not  be 
found  after  the  abolition  of  the  competitive  system. 
It  is  that  which  brings  forward  men  of  unusual 
ability  and  energy,  though  scarcely  in  sufficient 
numbers.  Socialism  would  increase  the  demand, 
but  lessen  the  supply.  Spencer  calls  it  "  the  com- 
ing slavery."  It  might  better  be  called  a  slavery 
which  is  becoming  obsolete.  Our  existing  system 
of  industry  certainly  needs  improvement;  but  this 
will  have  to  be  made  by  following  the  laws  of  social 
science.     Their  action  has   done   much   during  the 


Preface  vii 

present  century  to  improve  the  condition  of  the 
poor;  and  we  may  trust  that  it  will  do  more  here- 
after. The  nineteenth  might  be  called  the  philan- 
thropic century,  if  that  title  did  not  belong  also  to 
the  eighteenth. 

The  latter  has  the  peculiar  merit  of  doing  so  much 
to  abolish  persecution  that  there  have  been  com- 
paratively few  instances  during  the  period  covered 
by  this  book.  Much  more  has  been  done  during 
the  last  hundred  years  to  extend  political  than  re- 
ligious liberty ;  but  I  have  not  neglected  to  mention 
the  most  active  champions  of  the  great  princi- 
ple, that  human  rights  ought  not  to  be  affected  by 
individual  differences  about  theology.  If  there  is 
too  little  agitation  at  present  for  this  principle  in 
the  United  States,  it  is  largely  on  account  of  an 
unfortunate  occurrence  of  which  I  have  written  at 
some  length  in  the  last  chapter  but  one.  Here  I 
had  the  valuable  assistance  of  Francis  E.  Abbot, 
Ph.D.,  author  of  Scientific  Theism,  and  Benjamin  F. 
Underwood.  If  the  words,  "militant  liberals," 
had  been  used  in  this  chapter,  they  would  express 
my  meaning  more  plainly  than  the  term  "aggres- 
sive." 

The  least  pleasant  part  of  my  work  has  been  the 
pointing  out  defects  in  a  system  of  philosophy, 
ethics,  and  theology  which  I  once  delighted  to 
honour.  As  valuable  results  may  have  been  reached 
by  the  metaphysical  method  as  by  the  scientific ; 
but  if  the  latter  is  right  the  former  is  certainly 
wrong.  When  we  find  so  consistent  and  warm- 
hearted a  Transcendentalist  as  Miss  Cobbe  placing 
pantheism  and  scepticism   among    "the  greatest  of 


VIU 


Preface 


sins  "  (see  her  Religions  Duty,  pp.  19,  65,  and 
100),  we  may  suspect  that  this  philosophy  aggra- 
vated Carlyle's  natural  bitterness  against  opponents. 
There  has  been  comparatively  little  intolerance 
among  American  intuitionalists,  thanks  to  the 
genial  influence  of  Emerson. 

F.   M.    H. 

Augtist,    1 899. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

I. — Napoleon  and  his  Work 

I.  The  Empire  . 

II.  Jefferson's  Embargo 

III.  Napoleon's  Mistakes     . 

IV.  Effect  of  War  on  England 

V.  Reaction  in  Germany    . 

VI.  Reaction  in  France  and  Italy 

VII.  Greek  Revolution 

VIII.  Revolutions  in  South  America 

IX.  Reaction  in  Spain 

II. — Fruits  of  Peace. 

I.  Owen  and  Other  Philanthropists 

II.  Byron  and  Other  Poets 

III.  New  Laws  in  England  . 

IV.  Revolution  of  1830  at  Paris   . 
V.  Rotten  Boroughs  Abolished  . 

VI.  Other  Reforms  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 

VII.  Free  Trade  . 

VIII.  Dickens  and  Carlyle 

Supplement  to  Chapter  II. 

I.  The  Revolutions  of  1S4S 

II.  The  Liberation  of  Italy 

III.  The  Socialist  Insurrection  of  1S71 

III. — Democrats  and  Garrisonians 

I.  Democratic  Rule  in  the  United  States 

II.  Founders  of  American  I>iterature  . 

III.  Jackson  ..... 

IV.  High  and  Low  Tariffs  . 


PAGE 

1 
I 
4 

5 
10 
16 
20 
22 
23 
25 

27 
27 
29 
33 
35 
39 
41 
46 

55 

57 
61 
61 

64 
64 
66 
69 
72 


Contents 


CHAPTER 

PAGE 

V.      pearly  Abolitionists          ......        74 

VI.     Garrison         .          .          .          .          .          .          . 

76 

VII.     Mob  after  Mob 

S3 

VIII.     The  Election  of  1840 

85 

IX.      Northern  Disunionism  and  Annexation  of  Texas 

87 

IV. — Emancipation 

94 

I.     The  Free  Soilers  . 

94 

II.     The  Whig  Opportunity 

96 

III.     Compromise  of  1S50 

100 

IV.     Kansas          ..... 

104 

V.      Lincoln  Elected 

109 

VI.     War 

"3 

VII.      Dangers  to  Individual  I.iljerty 

"5 

VIII.     Emancipation 

"7 

IX.     Negro  Suffrage 

120 

V. — Emerson  and  Other  Transcendentalists 

125 

I.      Darkness  in  New  England     . 

125 

II.      Emerson        .... 

126 

III.      Results  of  Transcendentalism 

133 

IV.     Spiritualism  .... 

137 

V.     Parker  and  Thoreau 

I4t 

VI.     The  Anti-Vivisectionists 

147 

VI. — Platform  versus  Pulpit  . 

152 

I.     Woman's  Rights  . 

153 

II.     Bradlaugh      .... 

160 

III.     Ingersoll        .... 

163 

IV.      Underwood  .... 

165 

V.      The  Anti-Sabbath  Conventions 

168 

VI.     Liberal  Leagues    . 

170 

VII.     The  Chicago  Exposition 

181 

VIII.      The  Parliament  of  Religions 

183 

VII. — The  Evolutionists     . 

188 

I.     Darwin          .... 

189 

II.     Clerical  Opposition 

190 

III.     Spencer's  Psychology    . 

194 

IV.     Differentiation  and  Integration 

198 

V.     Religious  Tendency 

199 

Contents 


XI 


VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

Appendix 

List  of  Dates 

Index 


Limits  of  Government  . 
American  Usage    . 
Huxley  and  Lecky 
Conclusion    . 
Sunday  Recreation 


PAGE 
202 

206 

216 

217 

221 
223 
245 


LIBERTY  IN 
THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY 


CHAPTER  I 

NAPOLEON   AND   HIS   WORK 

I.  France  had  been  freed  by  the  Revolution  from 
many  ghosts  of  kingly,  feudal,  and  priestly  privi- 
leges; but  she  was  still  the  prey  of  the  most  deadly 
of  vampires, — military  glory.  The  followers  of  this 
fatal  guide  had  driven  the  party  of  peace  and  liberty 
from  power  by  force  and  fraud,  and  found  a  ruler 
after  their  own  hearts  in  the  conqueror  who,  in 
1804,  became  the  Emperor  Napoleon. 

Thus  was  established  what  some  metaphysicians 
suppose  to  be  the  best  form  of  government, — an 
enlightened  despotism.  The  autocrat  knew  that  he 
had  risen  to  power  as  the  most  popular  champion 
of  political  equality ;  and  he  gave  this  democratic 
principle  such  additional  authority  that  it  has  con- 
tinued supreme  in  France.  Her  sons  are  still  equals 
before  the  law,  owners  of  the  land  they  till,  exempt 
from  taxes  levied  for  the  benefit  of  any  privileged 


2  Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

class,  and  free  to  choose  their  own  career  and  mode 
of  worship.  This  is  due  in  great  part  to  the  usurper 
who  reduced  representative  government  to  an  empty 
shell,  and  who  centralised  the  administration  of 
schools,  police,  streets,  roads,  and  bridges,  and  all 
other  local  concerns  even  more  completely  than  had 
ever  been  done  before  the  Revolution. 

He  knew  the  real  needs  of  France  well  enough  to 
give  her  peace  with  all  her  enemies;  but  scarcely 
had  he  signed  the  last  treaty  when  he  took  posses- 
sion of  Switzerland,  and  continued  to  annex  terri- 
tory, in  defiance  of  the  protests  of  the  British 
ministers  that  he  was  making  peace  impossible.  War 
was  declared  by  them  in  1803  and  kept  up  against 
him  for  eleven  years  continuously,  with  occasional 
assistance  from  Russia,  Austria,  Prussia,  Spain,  and 
other  countries.  This  was  a  period  of  great  glory 
for  France,  but  also  of  great  suffering.  Her  bound- 
aries were  enlarged ;  but  her  most  patriotic  citizens 
were  slaughtered  in  foreign  lands;  her  shipping  was 
swept  away  by  British  cruisers;  her  people  were 
hindered  in  obtaining  American  grain,  British  cloth, 
and  other  necessaries  of  life,  in  exchange  for  wine, 
silk,  lace,  and  other  luxuries;  the  Emperor  could 
not  supervise  the  prefects  who  managed,  or  mis- 
managed, all  internal  interests,  and  who  were  re- 
sponsible to  him  alone ;  freedom  of  the  press  was 
prohibited ;  and  all  the  arts  of  peace  decayed. 

This  was  the  price  which  France  paid  for  Auster- 
litz,  Jena,  and  other  famous  victories  over  Russia, 
Austria,  and  Prussia,  which  in  1807  brought  peace 
wath  every  enemy  but  England,  and  made  Napoleon 
master,  either  directly  through  his  prefects,  or  in- 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  3 

directly  through  tributary  kings,  not  only  of  France 
but  of  the  Netherlands,  Denmark,  Switzerland, 
Spain,  Venice  with  the  rest  of  Italy,  and  about 
three-fourths  of  Germany,  including  one-half  of 
what  had  formerly  been  Prussian  territory.  Eight 
years  from  the  usurpation  in  1799  brought  him  to 
his  zenith  :  eight  years  later,  he  was  at  Saint  Helena. 

His  German,  Swiss,  and  Italian  subjects  gained 
political  equality,  and  also  the  permanent  advantage 
of  the  code  which  bears  his  name.  It  had  really 
been  made  by  his  lawyers,  on  foundations  laid  by 
the  Convention.  Throughout  his  dominions,  Jew, 
Catholic,  and  Protestant  became  equals  before  the 
law.  The  fact  that  these  reforms  survived  his 
authority  proves  that  they  could  have  been  estab- 
lished without  it.  They  were  unavoidable  results 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

How  little  he  was  influenced  by  philanthropy  is 
shown  by  his  driving  into  exile  a  statesman  named 
Stein,  who  had  abolished  serfdom  in  Prussia,  and 
made  it  equally  possible  for  the  members  of  all 
classes  to  buy  land  and  choose  occupations.  The 
establishment  of  the  Empire  had  been  preceded  by 
the  revival  of  slavery  in  several  colonies  where  it 
had  been  abolished  by  the  Convention.  It  was  for 
helping  the  Haytians  preserve  their  independence 
by  heroic  resistance,  that  Toussaint  was  sent  by 
Napoleon  to  die  in  prison.  The  conquered  nations 
in  Europe  were  handed  over  from  one  master  to  an- 
other, without  being  even  invited  to  consent ;  but 
what  was  still  more  oppressive  was  inability  to  ex- 
change their  own  products  for  cloth  and  hardware 
from  England,  grain  from  the  United  States,  coffee 


4         Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

and  sugar  from  the  West  Indies,  and  many  other 
articles  whose  lack  was  keenly  felt.  This  trouble 
was  largely  due  to  the  blockade  kept  up  by  British 
ships;  but  Napoleon  was  so  ignorant  of  the  advan- 
tage of  commerce  to  both  parties  engaged  in  it  as 
to  suppose  he  could  conquer  England  by  a  plan 
which  really  injured  only  himself  and  his  subjects. 
He  forbade  all  importation  from  Great  Britain  and 
her  colonies  wherever  he  had  power  or  even  influ- 
ence ;  and  many  of  the  prohibited  goods  were  taken 
from  merchants  and  destroyed  without  compensa- 
tion. Germany  suffered  also  from  having  her  manu- 
factures forbidden  to  compete  with  the  French. 
The  latter  asked  in  vain  for  freer  trade,  and  were 
told  by  Napoleon  that  he  understood  their  business 
better  than  they  did.  Countless  outrages  on  pro- 
minent individuals  helped  the  growth  of  disaffection. 

II.  The  British  ministry  retaliated  against  Na- 
poleon's attack  on  the  right  to  trade  freely,  with  a 
success  which  led  to  a  great  outrage  on  individual 
liberty  in  the  United  States.  The  war  with  Europe 
gave  much  of  the  world's  commerce  to  American 
ships;  but  they  were  forbidden  by  Great  Britain,  in 
1806,  to  trade  with  some  of  their  best  customers 
unless  they  stopped  to  pay  tribute  in  her  ports. 
The  seizures  for  disobedience  increased  the  anger 
which  had  been  long  felt  against  the  British  for  im- 
pressing sailors  on  board  of  American  ships.  Three 
thousand  citizens  of  the  United  States  had  been 
forced  into  a  hostile  navy  before  the  refusal  of  our 
frigate,  Chesapeake,  in  1807,  to  submit  to  a  search 
brought  on  a  bloody  contest. 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  5 

Napoleon  was  then  at  the  height  of  his  power; 
and  Great  Britain  was  fighting  against  him  single- 
handed.  It  was  an  unusually  good  time  for  declar- 
ing a  war  which  soon  proved  inevitable  in  defence 
of  merchants'  and  sailors'  rights.  Jefferson  pre- 
ferred to  violate  those  rights  himself,  as  had  been 
done  by  the  Federalists  in  1794,  and  Congress  aided 
him  in  forbidding  American  ships  to  sail  for  foreign 
ports.  This  embargo  was  so  plainly  unnecessary  that 
every  captain  who  was  able  to  get  out  of  New  York 
harbour  did  so  at  once  without  caring  what  crew, 
cargo,  or  papers  he  had  on  board.  Fifty  million 
dollars'  worth  of  shipping  was  kept  idle  for  more 
than  a  year;  a  hundred  thousand  sailors  and  me- 
chanics were  thrown  out  of  work;  farms  and  planta- 
tions ceased  to  be  profitable;  clothing  and  tools 
became  ruinously  dear;  thirteen  hundred  New 
Yorkers,  who  had  been  ruined  by  the  embargo, 
were  imprisoned  for  debt;  and  laws  for  protection 
against  creditors  were  passed  by  the  Southern  and 
Western  States.  No  one  gained  by  the  embargo 
except  the  smugglers;  and  attempts  to  suppress 
them  called  out  dangerous  manifestations  of  popular 
discontent.  No  one  suffered  less  than  the  British 
merchants. 

III.  Meantime,  Napoleon  took  the  first  step  to- 
wards ruin  in  placing  his  brother  on  the  throne  of 
Spain.  The  Spaniards  had  borne  patiently  the  loss 
of  ships,  commerce,  and  colonies;  but  this  fresh 
wrong  stirred  up  insurrection.  The  new  King  was 
brought  to  Madrid  by  French  troops;  but  not  a 
single  Spaniard  would  enter  his  service ;  and  he  was 


6         Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

soon  obliged  to  leave  the  city.  He  said  to  his 
brother,  "  Your  glory  will  be  wrecked  in  Spain  "; 
but  Napoleon  kept  on  sending  in  armies,  whose  vic- 
tories made  him  hated,  but  not  obeyed.  He  offered 
to  abolish  feudal  privileges,  the  inquisition,  and  the 
tariffs  which  separated  province  from  province. 
The  only  result  was  to  make  reform  odious  to  a 
people  which  cared  much  more  for  nationality  than 
progress.  The  clergy  encouraged  the  peasants  to 
keep  up  a  guerilla  war,  in  which  his  veterans  per- 
ished ignominiously ;  and  British  auxiliaries  won 
victories  which  made  Wellington  famous. 

Austria  took  advantage  of  the  situation  to  try  to 
reconquer  the  lost  provinces.  The  Tyrolese  had 
been  made  subjects  of  the  King  of  Bavaria;  but 
they  rose  at  the  call  of  Hofer,  and  gained  glori- 
ous victories  over  French  and  Bavarian  soldiers. 
Other  defeats  were  suffered  by  Napoleon ;  but  he 
soon  succeeded  in  forcing  Austria  to  grant  him,  not 
only  much  more  of  her  territory,  but  the  hand  of  a 
young  princess,  who  had  never  thought  of  him  but 
with  abhorrence.  This  involved  his  divorce  from 
the  loving  Josephine.  He  pleaded  desire  for  a  son 
who  might  succeed  him ;  but  he  was  not  likely  to 
live  until  any  child  who  might  be  born  after  this 
would  be  old  enough  to  keep  together  an  empire 
whose  basis  was  conquest. 

The  Austrian  princess  had  been  demanded  before 
Napoleon's  application  for  a  Russian  one  had  been 
answered  decisively ;  his  plans  for  restoring  Poland 
had  given  additional  offence  to  the  Czar;  and  the 
welfare  of  Russia  demanded  freedom  to  use  the 
products  of  her  forests,  fields,  and  mines  in  buying 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  7 

British  goods.  This  right  was  insisted  upon  by  the 
Czar;  and  Napoleon  had  only  abuse  for  the  friends 
who  warned  him  that  defeat  in  Russia  would  call  all 
Germany  to  arms  against  him.  He  was  already  so 
unpopular  at  Paris,  that  he  had  to  remove  with  his 
Court. 

The  enormous  army  with  which  he  invaded  Russia 
might  easily  have  taken  possession  of  her  Polish 
provinces,  where  the  people  were  friendly.  He  pre- 
ferred to  march  a  thousand  miles,  through  a  hostile 
and  barren  country,  to  Moscow.  The  city  was  set 
on  fire  at  his  arrival ;  but  he  wasted  so  much  time 
there,  that  winter  helped  the  Russians  turn  his  re- 
treat into  a  rout.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  soldiers 
perished  miserably. 

The  Prussians  flew  to  arms  ;  and  Austria  demanded 
restoration  of  her  provinces.  He  replied  that  he 
should  not  yield  an  inch,  and  cared  nothing  for  the 
loss  of  a  million  lives.  He  was  driven  out  of  Ger- 
many by  "  the  Battle  of  the  Nations,"  which  was 
won  at  Leipsic,  in  October,  181 3,  by  zealous  co- 
operation of  the  Russians  with  Prussians,  Austrians, 
Bavarians,  and  other  Germans. 

One  result  was  described  by  saying  that  "  The 
Dutch  have  taken  Holland."  Need  of  a  strong 
government  in  time  of  war  had  given  a  power  al- 
most monarchical  to  the  successors  of  that  Prince  of 
Orange  who  had  saved  his  republic  from  Philip  H. 
One  of  these  princes  was  driven  out  by  a  democratic 
rebellion  in  1787,  but  restored  by  a  Prussian  army. 
The  French  Revolution  enabled  Holland  to  return  to 
republicanism  ;  but  alliance  with  the  Directory  meant 
continual  spoliation ;  and  there  were  grievous  con- 


8         Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

scriptions  under  Napoleon,  whose  rule  was  extremely 
unpopular  in  a  nation  which  lived  by  commerce. 
When  the  Dutch  heard  of  his  defeat  at  Leipsic, 
they  rose  against  him  without  waiting  for  auxiliar- 
ies; and  the  French  garrisons  were  soon  driven  out 
by  the  help  of  soldiers  from  Russia,  Prussia,  and 
England.  The  rulers  of  these  countries  sanctioned 
the  desire  of  the  Orange  faction  to  make  the  prince 
a  king.  The  people  were  not  consulted,  but  were 
reconciled  by  a  constitution,  under  which  there  was 
a  legislature  with  some  power,  local  self-government, 
freedom  of  worship,  political  equality,  and  liberty 
in  commerce. 

Napoleon  might  have  remained  emperor;  but  he 
refused  to  make  any  concessions,  and  kept  on  fight- 
ing until  his  generals  abandoned  him,  and  his  deposi- 
tion was  voted  by  the  Senate.  The  people  would 
not  rise  for  him,  as  they  had  done  for  the  Republic; 
and  the  Parisians  refused  to  cry  "  Vive  V Empereur  " 
as  he  returned  from  Elba,  to  be  overthrown  at 
Waterloo.  Three  million  Frenchmen  perished  in 
his  wars;  and  he  left  France  smaller  than  he  found 
her.  His  restrictions  on  commerce  were  removed 
so  suddenly  as  to  destroy  the  industries  which  he 
had  tried  to  foster;  and  the  proportion  of  paupers 
to  the  population  was  three  times  as  great  as  in 
1880. 

France  was  still  desirous  that  the  press  should  be 
free,  and  that  taxation  should  be  controlled  by  re- 
presentatives of  the  people.  Louis  XVIII.  had  to 
promise  that  he  would  respect  these  rights  which 
his  predecessors  had  violated.  Toleration  con- 
tinued ;   and  the   peasants  kept   the  property  and 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  9 

equality  which  the  Revolution  had  given  them, 
and  which  no  sovereign  could  take  away. 

Napoleon  is  the  most  famous  of  generals;  but  his 
greatness  as  a  statesman  would  have  been  plainer  if 
he  had  not  undertaken  so  many  showy  enterprises 
which  had  little  chance  of  success.  He  failed 
signally  in  founding  a  dynasty,  in  making  France 
the  greatest  of  manufacturers,  and  in  giving  her  an 
invincible  navy,  though  he  might  have  gained  the 
first  of  these  objects  by  peace,  and  the  last  by  free 
trade.  He  could  not  even  leave  to  his  successor  the 
territory  which  had  been  conquered  by  the  Revolu- 
tion. Yet  these  were  his  dearest  purposes,  except 
the  wild  dream  of  humbling  England.  Was  he  the 
greatest  of  architects,  every  one  of  whose  colossal 
structures  fell  under  their  own  weight  before  they 
could  be  used  ?  Greater  is  he  who  builds  what  lasts 
for  ages. 

Napoleon  made  the  twenty  years  ending  with 
1815  more  glorious  than  any  later  period,  and  much 
more  wretched.  Western  Europe  was  afflicted  by 
bloody  wars,  and  impoverished  by  restrictions  on 
commerce.  If  his  reign  had  been  peaceable,  he 
might  have  deprived  France  much  more  completely 
of  what  liberty  she  had  enjoyed  under  the  Directory. 
Every  despot,  however  enlightened  and  benevolent, 
must  necessarily  interfere  so  much  with  the  liberty 
of  his  subjects  as  to  hinder  their  making  themselves 
happy.  France  and  Germany  lost  nothing  in  free- 
dom and  gained  much  in  prosperity  by  his  defeat; 
for  it  gave  the  world  many  years  of  peace.  What 
he  brought  of  political  and  religious  equality  to 
Prussia,   Western    Germany,   and   Switzerland   sur- 


TO       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

vived  him ;  for  it  was  part  of  his  inheritance  from 
the  Revolution  which  he  closed  treacherously. 
France  had  received  her  legacy  without  his  help; 
and  she  retained  much  of  it  in  spite  of  his  interfer- 
ence. His  victories  over  hereditary  monarchs  were 
so  suggestive  that  books  about  him  are  still  pro- 
hibited in  Russia;  but  no  people  lost  much  by  his 
overthrow  except  the  Italians. 

IV.  Waterloo  might  have  been  called  a  "  Battle 
of  the  Nations"  as  well  as  Leipsic ;  but  the  best 
fighting  was  under  the  British  flag.  The  English 
had  suffered  much  from  Napoleon,  in  spite  of  his 
never  succeeding  in  making  an  invasion.  The  worst 
injury  he  did  was  in  forcing  them  to  remain  in  that 
absorption  in  war  which  had  checked  the  growth 
of  toleration,  democracy,  and  prosperity  in  1793. 
George  III.  was  personally  popular;  but  his  weak, 
unprincipled  successor  was  merely  a  figurehead. 
Two-thirds  of  the  members  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons in  181 5  had  been  appointed  by  the  Ministry, 
or  by  some  nobleman,  and  most  of  the  others 
owned  or  rented  some  pocket-borough  almost  desti- 
tute of  inhabitants.  The  House  of  Lords  was  over- 
whelmingly opposed  to  government  by  the  people; 
and  no  Tories  were  more  consistent  than  those  sons 
or  proteges  of  noblemen,  the  bishops.  The  suc- 
cessors of  the  apostles  had  no  sympathy  with  the 
struggle  of  the  Cross  against  the  Crescent  in  lands 
where  Paul  had  preached.  They  helped  to  vote 
down  propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  India,  as  well  as 
enfranchisement  of  Roman  Catholics,  and  mitigation 
of  laws  which  punished  pilfering  with  death.     They 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  1 1 

tried  in  vain  to  save  the  slave-trade  from  prohibition  ; 
and  most  of  the  clerical  and  lay  members  of  both 
Houses  were  in  league  to  keep  the  tax  on  importa- 
tion of  wheat  heavy  enough  to  give  them  large 
incomes  from  their  real  estate. 

This  tariff  and  the  depreciation  of  currency  made 
food  excessively  dear.  The  country  labourer  was 
often  unable  to  earn  more  than  the  price  of  a  loaf  a 
day.  Employers  agreed  on  wages  so  low  that  the 
peasants  had  to  ask  continually  for  parochial  relief, 
and  could  not  afford  to  go  out  of  the  parish  to 
seek  higher  pay.  Their  degradation  was  increased 
by  their  almost  universal  illiteracy ;  and  their  mis- 
demeanours, especially  poaching,  were  punished 
cruelly;  for  the  rural  magistrate  was  either  the 
squire  or  his  ally,  the  parson.  There  was  little 
chance  of  justice  for  the  poor  against  the  rich;  the 
rural  labourer  could  seldom  improve  his  position ; 
and  the  bad  harvests  of  i8i6,  1817,  and  18 18  helped 
to  make  him  worse  off  than  ever  before  or  since. 

The  operatives  had  higher  wages,  but  suffered 
under  the  friction  of  an  industrial  revolution,  which 
has  done  more  than  any  political  convulsion  for 
human  happiness.  The  factory  had  been  enabled 
by  the  invention  of  the  steam-engine  and  other 
machines,  shortly  before  1800,  to  take  the  place  of 
the  cottages  in  making  cloth.  British  goods  were 
in  great  demand  abroad  during  the  war,  and  had  to 
be  carried  in  British  ships.  Improved  roads  and 
canals  led  merchants  and  manufacturers  to  opulence. 
The  rich  grew  richer,  as  has  usually  been  the  case; 
but  there  were  some  exceptional  years  during  which 
the  poor  really  grew  poorer.      One  man  could  make 


12       Liberty  In  the  Nineteenth  Century 

as  much  cotton  cloth  in  a  day  as  two  hundred  could 
have  done  before ;  but  what  was  to  become  of  the 
one  hundred  and  ninety-nine  ?  Demand  for  factory 
labour  kept  increasing  until  1815;  but  population 
grew  faster  still.  Wages  were  already  falling;  the 
return  of  peace  lessened  the  demand  abroad;  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  discharged  soldiers  and 
sailors  were  added  to  the  multitude  of  unemployed. 
Labourers  were  forbidden  either  to  emigrate  or  to 
combine  in  order  to  keep  up  wages;  and  their  earn- 
ings were  lowest  at  the  time  when  bread  was  the 
highest.  Meat,  sugar,  foreign  fruit,  and  many 
other  articles  now  in  common  use  were  almost  un- 
attainable by  the  poor  until  late  in  the  century. 
There  was  much  more  intelligence  in  the  towns  than 
in  the  country;  but  there  were  no  opportunities  of 
education  in  1818  in  England  for  one-half  of  the 
children. 

Boys  and  girls  entered  the  factory  at  the  age  of 
six,  and  often  from  the  poor-house,  where  they  had 
been  sold  into  slavery.  The  regular  time  was  four- 
teen hours  a  day;  sitting  down  was  seldom  per- 
mitted; food  was  scanty  and  bad;  punishment  was 
constant  and  cruel ;  deformity  and  disease  were  fre- 
quent;  and  the  death-rate  was  unusually  high. 
Terrible  cases  occurred  of  pauper  children,  kept  six- 
teen hours  at  a  stretch  without  rest  or  food,  driven 
by  hunger  to  rob  the  troughs  in  the  pig-sty,  tortured 
merely  for  amusement  by  the  overseer,  and  even  ad- 
vertised for  sale  with  the  mill. 

The  middle  class  differed  much  more  widely  than 
at  present,  both  from  the  masses  on  one  hand  and 
from  the  aristocracy  on  the  other,  as  regards  food. 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  13 

dress,  culture,  amusements,  and  political  liberty. 
Taxation  was  heavy  and  vexatious ;  representation 
in  Parliament  was  notoriously  inadequate  ;  and 
honest  men  and  women  were  still  liable  to  imprison- 
ment for  debt.  No  one  but  an  Episcopalian  had  a 
right  to  study  at  a  university,  enter  Parliament,  or 
hold  any  civil,  naval,  or  military  office  in  England; 
and  neither  Dissenters  nor  Catholics  could  marry 
without  going  through  ceremonies  which  conscience 
forbade.  The  press  was  fettered  by  laws  which 
kept  Leigh  Hunt  imprisoned  for  two  years,  on  ac- 
count of  an  article  acknowledging  the  unpopularity 
of  the  Prince  Regent.  Cobbett  underwent  an  equally 
long  imprisonment  in  Newgate  for  blaming  the 
cruelty  of  sentencing  insubordinate  militiamen  to 
be  flogged  five  hundred  lashes.  No  plays  could 
be  performed  in  London  in  18 14  until  they  had 
been  read  and  licensed  by  the  Lord  Chamberlain's 
deputy. 

As  soon  as  a  strong  government  ceased  to  be 
needed  for  protection  against  Napoleon,  there  broke 
out  much  agitation  for  relief  of  the  disfranchised  as 
well  as  of  the  destitute.  There  was  an  unprecedented 
circulation  of  the  cheap  pamphlets  in  which  Cobbett 
advised  the  discontented  to  abstain  from  lawless 
violence,  which  could  only  give  them  another  Robes- 
pierre, and  devote  themselves  to  striving  peaceably 
for  their  political  rights.  Among  these  he  asserted 
that  of  every  man  who  paid  taxes  to  vote  for  mem- 
bers of  Parliament.  The  serious  riots  which  took 
place  in  many  parts  of  Great  Britain,  even  London, 
made  the  aristocracy  consider  all  opportunities  of 
addressing   the    people  dangerous.      The  ministry 


14       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

were  empowered  in  1817  to  arrest  speakers  and 
authors  without  any  warrant,  and  keep  them  in 
prison  without  a  trial.  Prohibition  of  public  meet- 
ings was  made  possible  by  an  act  which  extended 
to  reading-rooms,  debating  societies,  even  among 
students  at  Cambridge,  and  scientific  lectures. 

The  mounted  militia  was  sent  to  disperse  a  meet- 
ing of  fifty  thousand  unarmed  men  and  women  at 
Manchester,  on  August  16,  1819,  in  behalf  of  parlia- 
mentary reform.  The  people  were  packed  together 
so  closely  that  they  were  unable  to  separate  quickly. 
Fear  that  some  of  the  young  gentlemen  who  had 
ridden  into  the  throng  might  get  hurt  led  the  magis- 
trates to  order  several  hundred  hussars  to  charge, 
without  notice,  into  the  dense  crowd.  The  meeting 
was  soon  reduced  to  heaps  of  fallen  men  and 
women,  who  had  been  overthrown  in  the  general 
struggle  to  escape  or  cut  down  by  the  soldiers ;  and 
the  field  was  covered  with  bloody  hats,  shawls,  and 
bonnets.  Six  people  were  killed,  and  more  than 
thirty  others  wounded  severely.  There  was  indigna- 
tion everywhere  against  this  wanton  cruelty;  and 
the  Common  Council  of  London  voted  their  cen- 
sure; but  Parliament  passed  laws  that  same  year 
which  made  public  meetings  almost  impossible,  and 
put  cheap  pamphlets  under  a  prohibitory  tax,  by 
requiring  that  they  must  have  such  an  expensive 
stamp  as  kept  newspapers  beyond  the  reach  of 
people  generally.  Arrests  for  printing  and  selling 
unstamped  publications  were  thenceforward  fre- 
quent. There  were  many  bloody  riots;  and  a  con- 
spiracy for  assassinating  the  Ministry  was  organised 
in  1820.     A  dangerous  revolution  mig:ht  then  have 


I 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  15 

broken  out,  if  food  had  not  been  made  plenty  by 
abundant  harvests. 

Roman  Catholics  were  still  forbidden  to  hold  any 
office  under  the  British  Government.  They  could 
not  sit  in  either  House  of  Parliament,  or  be  married 
legally  in  Ireland,  where  they  formed  four-fifths  of 
the  population,  and  almost  all  the  offices  on  that 
island  were  filled  by  Protestants  who  had  been  sent 
over  from  England,  or  else  elected  by  close  corpo- 
rations containing  scarcely  any  Catholics.  The  dis- 
franchised nation  was  all  the  more  indignant  on 
account  of  such  facts  as  that  two-thirds  of  the  soil 
of  Ireland  had  been  taken  away  without  compensa- 
tion by  English  invaders  before  1700,  and  that  the 
share  of  the  Irish  in  1800  was  only  one-tenth.  This 
was  held  mostly  in  great  estates,  as  was  the  rest  of 
the  island.  Rents  were  everywhere  high  and  wages 
low,  for  population  was  superabundant;  manufact- 
ures had  been  crushed  by  laws  to  protect  British 
interests;  the  people  were  left  ignorant,  even  of 
agriculture  ;  and  there  were  frequent  famines.  Both 
the  land  and  the  government  were  mismanaged  by 
an  anti-Irish  minority  which  took  little  pains  to  keep 
its  own  partisans  from  lawless  violence,  but  did  its 
utmost  to  extort  money  for  a  legion  of  priests,  who 
were  merely  servants  of  oppression  to  nine-tenths  of 
the  people.  How  little  they  cared  about  their  pro- 
fessed duty  may  be  judged  from  the  case  mentioned 
by  a  traveller  named  Inglis  (vol.  i.,  p.  349),  of  a 
bishop  who  drew  four  or  five  hundred  pounds  a  year 
for  calling  himself  rector  of  a  parish  where  there 
was  no  pretence  of  any  public  worship  but  the 
Catholic.      Indignation  of  Irish  Presbyterians  had 


i6       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

been  one  main  cause  of  the  bloody  rebelh'on  of  1798 ; 
and  all  patriotic  Irishmen  were  exasperated  at  the 
oppression  of  the  poor  by  the  rich.  Removal  of 
religious  disabilities  was  urgently  demanded,  and 
most  of  the  men  were  members  in  1825  of  an  inde- 
pendent association,  which  could  easily  have  turned 
the  island  into  one  vast  camp. 

V.  Germany  had  been  devastated  by  twenty  years 
of  battles;  and  many  thousand  Germans  had  per- 
ished, either  in  defending  their  homes  against  Na- 
poleon, or  in  serving  under  him  in  Russia.  His 
overthrow  left  them  in  deeper  subjection  than  ever 
to  a  league  of  despots,  who  differed  in  pomp  of  title 
and  extent  of  territory,  but  agreed  in  obstinately 
denying  any  political  liberty  to  the  people.  The 
servitude  of  Germany  was  confirmed  by  the  agree- 
ment of  clergymen  and  philosophers,  that  absolute 
monarchy  was  "  ordained  of  God."  The  ban  of 
church  and  university  was  on  the  revolutionary 
rationalism  which  had  inspired  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. The  predominant  philosophy  during  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  insisted  on  the  in- 
fallibility of  what  was  called  intuition,  but  was 
often  merely  tradition.  This  was  already  the  case 
in  Germany,  where  moribund  ideas  of  politics  and 
theology  were  worshipped  as  the  loftiest  revelations 
of  pure  reason. 

Devout  disciples  still  hold  that  all  established  in- 
stitutions are  justified  and  all  knowledge  revealed 
by  Hegel's  method  of  deduction  from  his  own  pecu- 
liar definition  of  the  Infinite.  That  definition  seems 
self-contradictory  ;  but  this  is  only  a  trifle,  compared 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  17 

with  the  method's  permitting  the  master  to  prefer 
absolute  monarchy,  and  forcing  him  to  deny  that 
any  nation,  not  extremely  limited  in  area,  can  long 
remain  a  democracy.  Hegel's  indifference  to  the 
existence  of  the  United  States  was  Hke  his  asserting, 
after  the  discovery  of  Ceres,  that  the  place  where  it 
had  been  found,  and  where  hundreds  of  other  planets 
are  now  known  to  exist,  must  be  empty.  Among 
other  results  of  his  system  were  a  denial  that  light- 
ning is  electricity,  and  an  assertion  that  rain  is 
merely  a  change  of  air  into  water.  Neither  liberty 
nor  knowledge  gains  by  disregard  of  experience  in 
favour  of  deductions  from  imaginary  intuitions. 

Unfortunately,  the  experience  of  Europe  under 
Napoleon,  as  well  as  during  the  Revolution,  seemed 
to  justify  restoration  of  old  institutions  as  well  as  of 
former  boundaries.  The  latter  purpose  was  osten- 
sibly that  for  which  the  conquerors  of  Napoleon  met 
at  Vienna,  soon  after  he  had  retired  to  Elba;  but 
their  real  object  was  to  divide  the  spoils  among 
themselves.  The  Emperors  of  Russia  and  Austria 
had  the  assistance,  or  opposition,  of  five  kings,  and 
of  so  many  princes  and  nobles  that  three  hundred 
carriages  of  state  were  kept  in  constant  readiness. 
Lovely  ladies  of  high  rank  came  from  many  lands ; 
and  it  seemed  to  the  uninitiated  as  if  nothing  was 
going  on  but  masked  balls,  private  theatricals, 
hunting  parties,  stately  dinners,  and  concerts.  Bee- 
thoven was  among  the  musicians.  There  was  no 
general  meeting  of  the  monarchs  and  ambassadors; 
but  there  were  frequent  conferences  of  those  most 
interested  in  one  point  or  another;  and  the  name 
of  Congress  of  Vienna  was  amply  justified  by  the 


i8       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

number  of  bargains  and  compromises.  The  only 
persons  never  consulted  were  the  thirty  millions 
whose  masters  were  thus  selected. 

Belgium,  for  instance,  was  forced  into  a  union 
with  Holland,  which  led  to  civil  war;  and  the  Nor- 
wegians were  put  under  subjection  to  the  Swedes, 
against  whom  they  had  just  been  fighting.  Ten 
millions  more  of  Poles  were  made  subjects  of  the 
Czar;  and  his  original  wish  to  rule  mildly  was  frus- 
trated by  their  rebellion.  The  Italians  had  been 
brought  by  Napoleon  into  such  unity  and  sense  of 
nationality  as  they  had  not  felt  for  many  centuries. 
Offers  of  greater  liberty  made  Lombardy  and  Venice 
take  sides  against  him  ;  they  were  rewarded  by  being 
put  under  the  most  hated  of  rulers,  the  Austrians; 
and  the  latter  were  made  virtually  masters  of  all 
Italy.  When  all  the  plunder  had  been  divided,  the 
royal  robbers  united  in  a  declaration,  acknowledging 
Jesus  as  the  only  sovereign  and  recommending  the 
daily  and  universal  practice  of  religion. 

The  only  sovereign  who  kept  his  promise,  that  he 
would  give  his  subjects  a  new  constitution  if  they 
would  help  him  conquer  Napoleon,  was  Goethe's 
patron  at  Weimar.  He  presided  over  the  Univers- 
ity of  Jena,  which  Schiller,  Fichte,  and  other  pro- 
fessors had  made  the  centre  of  democratic  influence 
in  Germany.  A  secret  political  society  was  formed 
by  students  who  had  fought  at  Waterloo;  and  all 
the  universities  were  invited  to  help  celebrate,  on 
October  i8,  1817,  the  anniversary,  not  only  of  the 
victory  at  Leipsic,  but  of  the  opening  of  the  Pro- 
testant Reformation.  Five  hundred  students  from 
various  parts  of  Germany  met  in  the  Wartburg,  the 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  19 

castle  where  Luther  found  refuge  after  bidding  de- 
fiance at  Worms  to  both  Pope  and  Emperor.  It 
was  agreed  that  the  new  society  should  extend 
through  all  the  universities,  and  should  have  ban- 
ners of  black,  red,  and  yellow.  These  henceforth 
were  the  colours  of  liberty  in  Germany. 

Napoleon  had  reduced  Prussia's  army  to  a  mini- 
mum ;  among  the  preparations  for  breaking  his  yoke 
had  been  the  practice  of  such  gymnastics  as  are  still 
kept  up  by  the  Turners;  and  a  public  exhibition 
was  given  that  evening  near  the  castle,  before  an 
immense  bonfire.  Reference  was  made  there  to 
kings  who  broke  their  word;  and  as  the  audience 
broke  up,  some  of  the  students  fed  the  blaze  with 
various  emblems  of  despotism,  such  as  the  canes 
with  which  soldiers  were  flogged  by  corporals. 
Then  they  burned  a  number  of  blank  books,  with 
titles  copied  from  those  of  pamphlets  recently  pub- 
lished in  opposition  to  progress. 

The  King  of  Prussia  had  taken  some  steps  to- 
wards constitutional  liberty,  but  these  boyish  freaks 
brought  him  completely  under  the  influence  of  Prince 
Metternich.  This  crafty  but  kind-hearted  Austrian 
worked  steadily,  from  18 14  to  1848,  at  much  sacri- 
fice of  ease  and  pleasure,  in  hope  of  preserving  civili- 
sation and  religion  from  being  destroyed  by  any  new 
revolution.  He  was  now  the  real  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many; the  British  Ministry  was  in  sympathy;  and 
the  Czar,  who  had  at  first  been  an  admirer  of  parlia- 
mentary government,  was  converted  by  an  outrage 
in  the  name  of  liberty  on  the  right  of  free  speech. 
One  of  the  literary  champions  of  Russian  autocracy, 
Kotzebue,    was  assassinated,    early   in    18 19,    by  a 


20       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

divinity  student  who  had  been  at  the  Wartburg,  That 
same  year  the  representatives  of  the  leading  German 
states  met  at  Carlsbad,  and  agreed,  with  the  Czar's 
approval,  that  all  German  journals  and  universities 
should  be  under  strict  supervision,  that  political 
offenders  should  be  tried  by  a  special  central  tribunal, 
and  that  the  new  colours  should  be  prohibited. 

VI.  Louis  XVIIL  cared  as  little  as  Charles  IL  of 
England  about  promises,  but  was  quite  as  unwilling 
to  have  to  travel  abroad.  He  dissolved  a  legislature 
which  was  too  reactionary;  subsequent  elections 
returned  liberal  candidates,  though  only  one  man  in 
a  hundred  could  vote;  the  National  Guard  was  re- 
vived ;  and  progressive  ideas  were  expressed  freely. 
France  was  moving  forwards  until  February  13, 
1820,  when  a  Bonapartist  murdered  the  King's 
nephew,  in  hope  of  cutting  off  the  succession.  The 
legislature  was  obliged,  two  days  later,  to  let  the 
press  be  muzzled;  sanctions  of  individual  liberty 
were  thrown  aside ;  and  a  law  was  passed  to  give 
rich  men  two  votes  apiece.  The  Liberal  Ministry 
was  dismissed;  and  its  successor  put  all  education 
under  control  of  the  priests,  forbade  Cousin  and 
Guizot  to  lecture,  and  sent  B^ranger  to  prison  for 
publishing  incendiary  songs.  Louis  XVIIL,  like 
Charles  II.,  left  the  crown  to  a  bigoted  brother, 
who  had  been  taught  by  the  Jesuits  to  care  much 
more  for  religion  than  human  rights,  or  the  duty  of 
chastity;  and  Charles  X.  did  his  utmost  to  make 
himself  an  absolute  monarch.  Still  worse  results  of 
assassination  in  the  name  of  liberty  had  already  been 
suffered  in  Spain  and  Italy. 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  21 

No  people  had  really  lost  much  by  the  overthrow 
of  Napoleon  except  the  Italians.  They  were  learn- 
ing how  to  love  each  other  as  fellow-citizens  of  one 
common  country,  and  how  to  care  more  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  people  than  for  that  of  the  priests.  The 
Congress  of  Vienna  restored  the  supremacy  of  the 
clergy,  and  cut  up  Italy  once  more  into  little  prin- 
cipalities, whose  stupid  and  cruel  despots  were 
guided  by  Metternich.  The  people  were  already 
conscious  of  the  tie  of  nationality,  desirous  to  be 
governed  with  some  regard  to  their  own  welfare, 
and  destitute  of  faith  in  the  divine  right  of  kings. 
Few  of  them  have  been  so  plainly  not  "  ordained 
of  God"  as  Ferdinand  of  Naples  and  Sicily.  He 
had  run  away  basely  from  the  invaders,  and  been 
brought  back  to  promise  amnesty,  and  to  massacre 
men,  women,  and  children  by  thousands.  No 
criminals  but  patriots  were  watched  closely;  and 
brigands  defied  the  government.  There  was  no 
pretence  of  liberty,  even  on  the  stage;  and  the 
Jesuits  kept  literature  and  education  down  to  merely 
nominal  existence.  The  only  refuge  of  freedom  was 
among  the  Carbonari,  or  members  of  a  secret  so- 
ciety, half  a  million  strong.  Their  flags  of  black, 
red,  and  blue  were  hoisted  in  many  towns  and  vil- 
lages on  July  2,  1820,  when  the  army  led  the  revolt. 
The  King  swore  on  the  Bible,  and  after  hearing 
mass,  that  he  would  establish  a  constitution  like  the 
French  one  of  1791,  and  then  asked  help  from  Met- 
ternich. The  latter  brought  the  Austrian,  Russian, 
and  Prussian  monarchs  together  at  Troppau,  Silesia, 
where  they  agreed,  on  December  8,  1820,  to  put 
down  all  rebels,  especially  in  Italy.     An  Austrian 


22       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

army  won  a  decisive  victory  next  March  over  the 
NeapoHtans,  whose  best  troops  were  fighting  against 
an  attempt  at  secession  in  Sicily. 

Austria  took  part,  a  month  later,  in  suppressing  a 
revolt  which  had  just  broken  out  against  the  petty 
despot  nicknamed  "  King  of  Sardines."  His  first 
step  on  his  restoration,  in  1814,  had  been  to  reap- 
point every  man  who  had  been  in  office  in  1798; 
and  Napoleon's  code  gave  way  to  ancient  statutes 
which,  for  instance,  forbade  the  Piedmontese  to  send 
wheat  they  could  not  use  themselves  to  the  Savoy- 
ards, who  were  starving.  He  was  forced  to  abdicate 
by  a  revolt  of  citizens  who  wanted  a  constitution 
and  of  soldiers  who  wished  to  free  Lombardy  from 
Austria.  Her  help  enabled  his  successor  to  keep 
the  monarchy  absolute;  and  her  influence  became 
paramount  in  Sardinia,  as  elsewhere  in  Italy. 

Vn.  The  month  of  April,  1821,  brought  an  end 
of  rebellion  in  Italy,  and  the  outbreak  of  a  ferocious 
revolution  in  Greece.  The  Turkish  rule  was  intol- 
erant, and  intentionally  oppressive.  Exportation 
of  food  and  clothing,  for  instance,  was  forbidden  in 
hope  of  keeping  down  prices;  and  the  result  was  to 
check  production.  The  country  was  full  of  brigands ; 
and  the  worst  of  wrongs  were  inflicted  on  unbeliev- 
ers by  the  officials.  Priests  and  rulers  in  other  lands 
refused  to  help  their  fellow-Christians  against  Mos- 
lem tyrants;  and  the  famous  victory  won  by  Boz- 
zaris  was  over  Roman  Catholics.  The  new  republic 
had  only  nominal  authority.  Independent  bands 
of  patriots  fought*  desperately ;  and  the  Crescent 
soon  gave  place  to  the  Cross  in  the  Archipelago  as 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  23 

well  as  in  the  Morea,  once  famous  as  the  Pelopon- 
nesus; but  the  cause  was  continually  disgraced  by 
pillage,  perfidy,  massacre,  and  civil  war.  Several 
millions  of  contributions,  mainly  English,  were 
squandered  by  the  captains.  Byron  sacrificed  his 
life  in  a  vain  attempt  to  create  military  discipline; 
and  lack  of  any  permitted  the  Morea  to  be  con- 
quered in  1825  by  the  regular  army  sent  over  by 
the  Pasha  of  Egypt. 

All  resistance,  north  of  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth, 
was  soon  suppressed  by  the  co-operation  of  Egypt- 
ians and  Turks;  and  the  islanders  could  do  nothing 
better  than  ask  help  from  foreigners.  The  only 
government  which  had  thus  far  aided  Greece  was 
the  American;  and  Congress  had  done  much  less 
than  the  people  to  relieve  distress.  An  alliance  be- 
tween Great  Britain,  France,  and  Russia,  for  pre- 
venting extermination  of  the  Greeks,  was  brought 
about  by  Canning.  The  sovereigns  of  Turkey  and 
Egypt  were  so  obstinate  that  their  ships  were  de- 
stroyed by  the  allied  fleet  at  Navarino,  Messenia, 
on  October  20,  1827.  The  Egyptians  were  driven 
out  of  the  Morea  by  French  soldiers;  and  Northern 
Greece  rose  against  the  Turks  with  a  success  which 
secured  the  present  boundary.  The  Greeks  were 
not  permitted  to  establish  a  republic;  but  the  mon- 
archy finally  became  constitutional  under  the  press- 
ure of  insurrection. 

VIII.  No  nation  had  been  less  capable  than  the 
Spanish  of  appreciating  the  advantage,  either  of  a 
vigorous  government,  or  of  toleration,  freedom  of 
the  press,  political  equality,  and  personal  liberty. 


24       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

All  the  time-honoured  abuses  abolished  by  Napoleon 
had  been  at  once  restored  with  the  help  of  the  popu- 
lace; but  nothing  effective  was  done  to  suppress  the 
insurrections  which  had  broken  out,  during  the  war, 
in  Mexico  and  South  America.  Up  to  that  time, 
the  Indians  were  serfs  and  the  negroes  were  slaves. 
All  political  power  was  monopolised  by  officials 
sent  over  from  Spain.  Spanish  interests  were  pro- 
tected so  thoroughly  that  all  domestic  industries 
were  crippled,  and  goods  often  cost  six  times  as 
much  as  in  Europe.  Schools  and  newspapers  were 
almost  unknown;  no  books  but  religious  ones  could 
be  bought ;  and  heresy  was  punished  pitilessly. 

The  invasion  of  Spain  by  Napoleon  gave  oppor- 
tunity for  several  simultaneous  insurrections.  That 
in  Venezuela  was  crushed  by  a  great  earthquake, 
which  was  accepted  as  a  sign  of  divine  wrath. 
Among  the  leaders  was  Bolivar,  who  retreated  to 
Colombia.  A  Spanish  version  of  Paine's  Rights  of 
Man  had  been  circulated  there,  and  the  patriots 
were  fighting  gallantly.  There  were  many  bloody 
battles  in  Venezuela  and  Colombia;  but  both  coun- 
tries were  finally  made  free  by  the  battle  of  Carabolo, 
won  on  June  24,  1821,  by  Bolivar. 

On  July  28th,  in  that  same  year,  the  independ- 
ence of  Peru  was  proclaimed  by  General  San  Martin, 
who  had  liberated  Chili,  three  years  previously,  with 
an  army  which  he  led  from  the  Argentine  Republic 
across  the  Andes  by  paths  never  used  thus  before. 
His  decisive  victories  were  won  by  the  help  of  eman- 
cipated slaves.  Chili  would  have  made  him  her 
ruler;  but  he  asked  only  her  help  against  the  Span- 
iards, who  were  concentrated  in  Peru.     There  he 


Napoleon  and  his  Work  25 

found  such  disorder  as  led  him  to  declare  himself 
Protector;  but  this  made  him  so  unpopular  that  he 
resigned  his  power  and  left  the  continent  which  he 
had  done  more  than  anyone  else  to  liberate. 

The  war  went  on  until  the  hold  of  Spain  on  Amer- 
ica was  broken  forever  by  a  battle  fought,  12,000 
feet  above  the  sea,  on  December  9,  1826,  at  Ayacu- 
cho,  a  name  given  long  before  by  Indians  who  had 
fought  there  among  themselves,  and  meaning  "  the 
Corner  of  Death."  Constitutions  like  that  of  the 
United  States  had  already  been  proclaimed ;  too 
much  power  was  held  by  Bolivar  and  other  despots; 
but  they  did  not  keep  the  people  in  such  poverty, 
ignorance,  and  apathy  as  had  been  inflicted  by  Spain. 
Paraguay,  however,  had  a  tyrant  who  dressed  him- 
self after  a  caricature  of  Napoleon,  and  tried  to  imi- 
tate his  despotism,  but  had  nothing  of  his  genius. 
Francia  was  one  of  Carlyle's  model  rulers,  perhaps 
because  he  allowed  no  elections,  juries,  public  meet- 
ings, or  newspapers,  and  sent  everyone  who  talked 
politics  to  prison.  Men  who  would  not  take  off 
their  hats  to  him  were  cut  down  by  his  guards;  and 
timid  boys  were  seen  running  through  the  streets  with 
no  other  article  of  dress.  There  were  no  imports  or 
exports,  except  by  special  permission ;  and  goods 
cost  ten  times  as  much  as  at  Buenos  Ayres.  Equal- 
ity of  races  was  sought  by  degrading  the  whites; 
but  Francia's  reign  had  the  one  merit  of  peace. 

IX.  Intelligent  Spaniards  were  provoked  at  their 
king's  failure  to  suppress  the  rebellion;  and  the 
soldiers  who  were  called  together  for  this  purpose 
in   18 19  had  been  so  badly  paid  that  they  plotted 


26       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

with  the  friends  of  progress.  A  revolt  broke  out  in 
the  camp  on  the  first  day  of  1820;  and  it  was  soon 
followed  by  one  at  Madrid,  where  the  dungeon  of 
the  Inquisition  was  broken  open.  The  King  was 
forced  to  restore  the  Constitution  which  had  been 
framed  by  the  patriots  in  18 12,  after  the  model  of 
the  French  instrument  of  1791.  The  prospect  of 
freedom  in  religion  made  the  clergy  and  peasantry 
mutinous.  The  reactionists  in  France  and  Spain 
found  favour  with  the  sovereigns  of  Russia,  Austria, 
and  Prussia.  The  Liberal  Government  was  over- 
thrown in  April,  1823,  by  a  French  army.  The 
peasants  took  sides  with  the  invaders,  and  many 
patriots  were  massacred  by  the  populace.  Absolute 
monarchy  and  other  ancient  iniquities  were  restored, 
but  not  the  Inquisition.  France  would  have  gone 
on  to  subdue  the  rebels  in  South  America  for  her 
own  benefit ;  but  this  was  prevented  by  the  British 
Ministry,  which  was  now  showing  the  liberalising 
influence  of  peace. 

Napoleon's  despotism  had  the  awful  and  baneful 
grandeur  of  an  eruption  of  Vesuvius;  but  his  de- 
spicable enemies  merely  kept  up  the  oppression  of 
his  empire  without  its  glory.  Their  work  com- 
pleted his,  as  the  last  of  the  petty  emperors  at 
Rome  and  Constantinople  showed  the  legitimate 
tendency  of  the  political  system  of  the  mighty 
founder.  Caesar  and  Napoleon  had  much  in  com- 
mon as  conquerors;  but  it  showed  far  more  great- 
ness to  found  an  empire  which  endured  for  fifteen 
centuries,  than  one  which  held  together  for  scarcely 
as  many  years.  Even  that  length  of  despotism  was 
sadly  too  long  for  the  welfare  of  mankind. 


CHAPTER  II 


FRUITS   OF   PEACE 


EXIGENCIES  of  war  had  given  the  British  nobles 
a  despotic  power,which  they  retained  long  after 
it  ceased  to  be  needed  for  the  nation's  safety.  The 
King  was  their  puppet  and  Parliament  their  property. 
The  laws  were  framed  and  administered  for  their 
protection  and  emolument.  Clergy,  army,  militia, 
and  police  were  all  organised  for  keeping  the  people 
down;  and  education  could  do  nothing  to  raise  the 
lowly.  Pensions  and  salaries,  even  in  the  Church, 
were  reserved  for  members  and  servants  of  the  aristo- 
cracy, with  little  care  for  the  public  good.  Wages 
were  low,  food  dear,  illiteracy  common,  and  paupers 
numerous.  Even  the  middle  class  was  in  great  part 
disfranchised;  taxation  was  needlessly  severe;  the 
press  was  restricted  grievously ;  and  Ireland  was 
shamefully  oppressed. 

I.  As  public  attention  ceased  to  be  absorbed  by 
victorious  generals,  it  turned  to  the  miseries  of  the 
poor;  and  there  was  much  discussion  of  plans  for 
their  relief.  Early  in  the  century  it  becamfe  gener- 
ally known  that  Robert  Owen's  factories  were  un- 
usually profitable,  on  account  of  what  he  did  for  the 

27 


28        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

intelHgence,  health,  and  happiness  of  the  opera- 
tives. His  pamphlet,  published  in  1813,  and  often 
reprinted  as  a  New  View  of  Society,  argued  strongly 
for  universal  education  as  the  remedy  for  poverty 
and  crime;  public  opinion  was  much  enlightened  on 
the  Continent,  as  well  as  in  England;  but  a  saga- 
cious member  of  the  British  aristocracy  said  to  him  : 
"  Oh,  I  see  it  all!  Nothing  could  be  more  complete 
for  the  working-classes;  but  what  will  become  of 
us  ?  " 

Owen  complained  in  this  pamphlet  that  Sabbatari- 
anism denied  "  innocent  and  cheerful  recreation  to 
the  labouring  man  "  ;  and  he  spoke  in  public  of  the 
influence  of  religion  on  progress,  with  a  hostility 
which  sadly  injured  his  popularity.  His  life  was 
examined  with  a  jealousy  which  brought  to  light  only 
its  elevation.  The  opposition  of  people  who 
thought  themselves  respectable  drove  him  into 
agitation  for  what  he  was  the  first  to  call  "  Social- 
ism." He  published  on  May  i,  1820,  his  plan  for 
forming  villages,  where  the  people  were  to  work 
under  the  supervision  of  the  eldest,  and  "  be  freely 
permitted  to  receive  from  the  general  store  of  the 
community  whatever  they  might  require."  These 
last  words  contain  the  characteristic  principle  of 
Socialism,  that  every  labourer  is  to  be  paid  accord- 
ing to  his  needs,  whatever  the  value  of  the  work. 

A  dozen  such  experiments  were  made  in  the 
United  States,  about  1825;  but  it  was  found  im- 
possible to  un-learn  the  experience  of  the  race. 
Progress  has  consisted  in  bringing  each  man's  wel- 
fare into  more  exact  proportion  to  the  value  of  his 
work.     This  tendency  has  never  safely  been  sus- 


Fruits  of  Peace  29 

pended,  except  under  such  coercion  as  has  kept 
up  industry  and  economy  among  monks,  Rappites, 
Shakers,  and  other  docile  enthusiasts.  The  co- 
operative stores  which  Owen  was  among  the  first  to 
open  seem  to  have  failed  because  the  salaries  were 
not  high  enough  to  secure  skilful  managers. 

II.  The  proof  that  a  reformer  was  before  his  age 
is  the  fact  that  later  years  caught  up  with  him ;  and 
this  is  by  no  means  so  true  of  Owen  as  of  Bentham, 
wh^  declared  Socialism  impracticable.  He  Avas  one 
of  the  first  to  advocate  woman  suffrage  {Works,  vol. 
iii.,  p.  463),  savings  banks,  cheap  postage,  collec- 
tion of  statistics,  direction  of  punishment  towards 
reformation,  and  repeal  of  usury  laws.  His  bulky 
volumes  are  in  great  part  occupied  with  suggestions 
for  making  the  courts  of  justice  less  dilatory  and  un- 
certain, less  expensive  to  the  poor,  and  less  partial 
to  the  rich.  W'xs  Principles  of  Morals  and  Legisla- 
tion declared,  in  1787,  that  the  sole  end  of  a  ruler 
ought  to  be  the  happiness  of  all  the  people,  and 
that  this  rule  should  be  the  basis  of  ethics  as  well 
as  politics.  One  of  his  publications  in  18 17  claimed 
the  suffrage  for  every  man  and  woman  who  could 
read,  but  insisted  that  this  would  be  "  worse  than 
nothing"  without  that  "  shield  to  freedom,"  the 
secret  ballot.  An  opponent  who  feared  that  this 
would  destroy  private  property  was  answered  thus: 

Has  he  ever  heard  of  Pennsylvania  ?  "  The  com- 
plaint that  freedom  of  the  press  to  expose  corrupt 
officials  might  weaken  the  government  was  met  by 
showing  that  there  can  be  no  good  government 
without  it.     To  think  our  ancestors  wiser  than  us, 


30       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

he  says,  is  to  take  it  for  granted  that  it  is  not  ex- 
perience but  inexperience  that  is  the  "  mother  of 
wisdom." 

Bentham's  best  work  was  in  sowing  seed  that  his 
friends  might  reap  the  harvest.  Other  authors  were 
generously  assisted  by  his  manuscripts,  purse,  and 
Hbrary ;  and  there  has  been  no  stronger  advocate 
of  reform  than  the  Westminster  Rcvieiv,  which  he 
founded  in  1824.  The  first  number  showed  that 
the  Whigs  were  too  much  like  the  Tories.  Their 
leaders  were  noblemen  or  millionaires;  their  favo^ar- 
ite  measure,  abolition  of  rotten  boroughs,  was  mainly 
in  the  interest  of  the  middle  class;  and  their  policy 
towards  the  masses  was  a  seesaw  between  promising 
elevation  and  permitting  oppression.  This  article 
was  by  James  Mill,  who  showed  in  a  later  number 
that  any  church  which  was  established  must,  on  that 
account,  be  bigoted.  His  essay  On  Government 
urges  that  the  masses  cannot  be  protected  unless 
fully  represented.  They  had  not  yet  found  out 
all  they  needed;  but  education  would  teach  it; 
and  occasional  mistakes  would  not  be  so  bad  as 
systematic  oppression.  Among  his  ablest  books 
is  a  defence  of  the  rationalism,  bequeathed  by 
the  eighteenth  century,  against  Transcendentalism, 
which  eclipsed  it  during  the  first  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth. 

The  inspiration  of  the  new  philosophy  was  added 
to  that  of  many  new  reforms;  and  a  glorious  litera- 
ture blossomed  in  the  long  summer  of  peace.  Words- 
worth's fear  of  "  too  much  liberty  "  did  not  prevent 
his  encouraging  intellectual  independence  most  im- 
pressively.     Scott  tried  "  to   revive  the   declining 


Fruits  of  Peace  31 

spirit  of  loyalty";  but  the  result  was  universal 
admiration  of  rebels  and  sympathy  with  peasants. 
Many  authors  who  adapted  themselves  much  more 
closely  and  intentionally  to  the  needs  of  the  age 
ceased  long  ago,  for  this  very  reason,  to  find  readers. 
This,  for  instance,  was  the  fate  of  the  indefatigable 
Cobbett. 

Landor,  on  the  other  hand,  was  unpopular  from 
the  first,  because  devotion  to  Greek  and  Latin  lit- 
erature made  his  style  as  well  as  some  of  his 
favourite  topics  uninteresting,  except  for  scholarly 
people  who  were  soon  offended  by  such  remarks  as 
"  Law  in  England  and  in  most  other  countries  is 
the  crown  of  injustice.  According  to  her  laws  and 
usages,  Brutus  would  have  been  hanged  at  New- 
gate; Cato  buried  with  a  stake  through  his  body  in 
the  highroad;  Cicero  transported  to  Botany  Bay." 
"  Certain  I  am,  that  several  of  the  bishops  would 
not  have  patted  Cain  upon  the  back  while  he  was 
about  to  kill  Abel."  "A  peerage  I  consider  as  the 
park-paling  of  despotism."  In  his  Imaginary  Con- 
versations, Hofer  and  Metternich,  the  emperors  of 
Russia  and  China,  the  kings  of  Spain  and  Portugal, 
the  Spanish  priest.  Merino,  and  many  other  extra- 
ordinary personages  tell  how  badly  England  was 
governed  by  "  the  hereditarily  wise,"  and  what  a 
misfortune  it  was  for  all  Europe,  to  have  her  rulers 
enjoy  such  an  intimate  and  universal  friendship  as 
was  never  known  among  their  predecessors. 

No  writer  has  spoken  more  mightily  than  Byron 
against  the  "  blasphemy"  of  ascribing  divine  author- 
ity to  these  "  royal  vampires."  He  knew  that  Na- 
poleon had  been  "  the  scourge  of  the  world  "  ;  but 


32       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

he  was  indignant  to  see  the  men  who  had  struck 
down  the  Hon  kneehng  before  wolves;  and  yet  he 
looked  forward  to  the  reign  everywhere  of  "  equal 
rights  and  laws."  He  spoke  freely  of  the  "  sacer- 
dotal gain  but  general  loss  "  in  superstition  ;  and  his 
own  highest  faith  was  that  "  they  who  die  in  a  great 
cause  "  would 

"  Augment  the  deep  and  sweeping  thoughts 
Which  overpower  all  others  and  conduct 
The  world  at  last  to  freedom." 

His  poems  revealed  the  grandeur  of  scenery,  as 
well  as  history,  and  made  delight  in  mountains  and 
thunderstorms  felt  as  an  ennobling  influence.  His 
speeches  in  the  House  of  Lords  were  pleas  for 
parliamentary  reform,  Catholic  emancipation,  and 
mercy  to  rioters  infuriated  by  famine.  In  1820, 
he  was  one  of  the  leading  Carbonari  in  Italy ;  he  gave 
his  life  to  help  the  Greeks  become  free;  and  his 
name  is  still  a  watchword  of  revolution. 

His  friend,  Shelley,  went  so  far  in  the  same  direc- 
tion as  to  call  himself  a  republican,  as  well  as  an 
atheist.  His  life  was  pure  in  his  own  eyes;  but  his 
opinions  about  divorce  were  punished  by  a  decision 
in  Chancery  that  he  was  unfit  to  be  trusted  with 
his  own  children.  He  had  consecrated  himself  in 
boyhood  to  war  against  all  oppressors;  and  his  posi- 
tion to  the  last  was  that  of  his  own  Prometheus, 
suffering  continually  with  the  enslaved,  but  con- 
soled by  faith  that  his  sympathy  will  hasten  the 
glorious  day  when  every  man  shall  be  "  king  over 
himself,"  when  women,  free"  from  custom's  evil 
taint, ' '  shall  make  earth  like  heaven,  when  ' '  thrones, 


I 


Fruits  of  Peace  33 

altars,  judgment-seats,  and  prisons  "  shall  seem  as 
antiquated  as  the  pyramids,  and  when  human  nature 
shall  be  "  its  own  divine  control."  He  took  the 
side  of  the  poor  against  the  rich  in  a  drama  which 
was  suppressed  on  account  of  its  severity  against 
George  IV.,  and  which  ends  with  a  portentous  scene, 
where 

"  Freedom  calls  Famine,  her  eternal  foe, 
To  brief  alliance." 

He  spoke  as  well  as  wrote  for  the  independence 
of  Ireland;  and  he  would  have  done  much  for  that 
of  Greece,  if  he  had  not  died  soon  after  publishing 
a  magnificent  tragedy,  in  which  he  showed  what 
cruel  massacres  were  perpetrated  while  the  rulers 
of  Christendom  refused  to  help  Christian  patriots 
against  the  Turks.  Byron  is  called  the  poet  of  revo- 
lution ;  but  Shelley  was  the  poet  of  liberty.  One 
was  like  a  painter  who  captivated  the  multitude, 
sometimes  by  his  brilliancy  of  colour,  sometimes  by 
his  tragic  pathos,  and  sometimes  by  his  amorous 
warmth.  The  other  was  like  a  sculptor  who  left  a 
few  statues  and  tablets,  fanciful  in  design  and 
majestic  in  execution,  for  the  delight  of  connoiss- 
eurs. Fortunately  the  marble  is  likely  to  outlast 
the  canvas. 

III.  These  poets  and  philanthropists  helped  the 
people  of  England  contrast  the  wrongs  they  were 
suffering  with  the  rights  they  ought  to  have.  That 
love  of  liberty  which  drove  out  the  Stuarts  reviv^ed, 
as  despotism  was  seen  to  increase  pauperism  and 
excite  more  crime  than  it  suppressed.  The  conflict 
3 


34       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

between  republicanism  and  monarchy  in  Europe 
had  changed  to  one  between  despotism  and  con- 
stitutionalism ;  and  peace  made  England  free  to 
resume  the  advanced  position  she  had  held  in  the 
eighteenth  century.  The  declaration  of  President 
Monroe,  in  December,  1823,  that  the  United  States 
would  not  permit  the  South  American  republics  to 
be  overthrown  by  any  despot  in  Europe,  gained 
much  authority  from  the  concurrence  of  the  British 
Ministry ;  and  the  latter  was  induced  by  Canning 
to  form  that  alliance  with  France  and  Russia  which 
gave  independence  to  Greece. 

The  attack  on  the  slave-trade,  which  began  while 
England  was  at  peace  with  her  neighbours,  had 
slackened  in  the  shadow  of  the  long  war.  The 
wicked  traffic  was  prohibited  in  1807;  but  little 
more  could  be  done  before  1823,  Then  an  appeal 
for  emancipation  in  the  West  Indies  was  made 
to  Parliament  by  Wilberforce  and  other  organised 
abolitionists;  and  the  agitation  went  on  until  vic- 
tory was  made  possible  by  the  rescue  of  the  House 
of  Commons  from  the  aristocrats.  The  acts  forbid- 
ding workingmen  to  combine  for  higher  wages,  or 
to  emigrate  were  repealed  in  1824.  The  criminal 
laws  had  already  been  mitigated,  and  some  protec- 
tion given  to  children  in  factories;  and  the  duties 
on  wool  and  raw  silk  were  now  reduced,  to  the 
common  benefit  of  consumer,  manufacturer,  and 
operative. 

The  Whigs  were  strong  enough  in  1828  to  repeal 
the  Test  Act,  which  had  been  passed  in  1673,  for  the 
purpose  of  enabling  the  Episcopalians  to  hold  all 
the  offices,  but  had  become  a  dead  letter  so  far  as 


Fruits  of  Peace  35 

regarded  Protestants.  The  House  of  Lords  gave 
way  unwillingly ;  and  one  of  the  bishops  secured 
such  a  compromise  as  kept  Jews  out  of  Parliament 
for  the  next  thirty  years.  Conscientious  scruples 
against  taking  oaths  were  treated  at  this  time 
with  due  respect;  and  all  British  Protestants  be- 
came equals  before  the  law.  Canning  had  already 
made  the  House  of  Commons  willing  to  emancipate 
Catholics;  but  neither  this  reform  nor  that  of  abol- 
ishing rotten  boroughs  could  pass  the  bench  of 
bishops;  and  the  Church  stood  in  the  way  of  a  plan 
for  free  public  schools.  It  was  the  organised  resist- 
ance of  all  Ireland  to  disfranchisement  of  Catholics 
which  won  toleration  from  a  Tory  Ministry.  Its 
leader,  Wellington,  cared  nothing  for  public  opinion 
or  the  people's  rights;  but  he  was  too  good  a  gen- 
eral to  risk  a  war  with  a  united  nation.  Ev^en  the 
minister  whose  sympathy  with  Orangemen  had  won 
the  nickname  of  "  Orange  Peel  "  declared  that  it 
was  time  to  yield.  Popular  prejudice  against  Ro- 
manism had  been  much  diminished  by  gratitude 
for  the  aid  given  by  Catholic  allies  against  Na- 
poleon. The  bishops  rallied  around  the  King,  who 
had  never  before  been  influenced  by  what  he  called 
religion;  but  he  was  forced  to  sign,  on  April  13, 
1829,  the  bill  which  ended  a  strife  that  had  cursed 
Europe  for  three  hundred  years.  Two-thirds  of 
the  bishops  resisted  to  the  last;  and  the  Tory  party 
was  so  badly  divided  as  to  be  unable  to  prevent 
England  from  following  the  example  set  next  year 
by  France. 

IV.   By  the  Constitution  of  18 14,  the  power  be- 


36       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

longed  mainly  to  the  Parisian  bankers,  merchants, 
and  manufacturers.  These  men  preferred  constitu- 
tional monarchy  to  either  democracy  or  military  des- 
potism ;  but  they  meant  to  maintain  their  own 
rights ;  and  they  were  much  offended  at  the  attempts 
of  Charles  X.  to  check  mental  progress  and  revive 
superstition.  His  plans  for  fettering  the  press  were 
voted  down  in  the  Chamber  of  Nobles;  journalists 
prosecuted  by  his  orders  were  acquitted  by  the 
courts;  and  he  could  not  enforce  a  law  under  which 
burglars  who  robbed  a  Catholic  church  would  have 
mounted  the  guillotine. 

Early  in  1830,  he  dissolved  the  Legislature  for  de- 
claring that  he  was  not  governing  according  to  the 
wish  of  the  people.  The  candidates  next  elected 
were  two  to  one  against  him.  On  Monday,  July 
26,  appeared  his  ordinances  forbidding  publication 
of  newspapers  without  his  permission,  unseating  all 
the  deputies  just  chosen,  and  threatening  that  sub- 
sequent elections  would  be  empty  formalities.  The 
plan  waslike  that  of  1797;  but  this  time  the  soldiers 
in  Paris  were  few  in  number  and  ill-supplied  with 
provisions,  while  their  general  was  not  even  notified 
of  his  appointment.  The  police  allowed  the  jour- 
nalists to  spread  the  news  throughout  Paris  and 
publish  a  protest  declaring  that  they  would  not 
obey  the  ordinances  and  appealing  to  the  people  for 
support.  The  leader,  Thiers,  had  already  called  for 
a  king  who  would  reign  but  not  govern.  Lawyers 
and  magistrates  pronounced  the  ordinances  illegal. 
Printers  and  other  employers  told  their  men  that 
the  next  day  would  be  a  holiday. 

On  Tuesday,    the  crowds  of   operatives,  clerks. 


Fruits  of  Peace  2)7 

students,  ragged  men  and  boys  could  not  be  dis- 
persed by  the  police.  Marmont  took  command  of 
the  troops  that  afternoon,  and  shot  a  few  insurgents. 
That  night  all  the  street-lamps  were  put  out;  thou- 
sands of  barricades  went  up,  after  plans  but  recently 
invented  ;  and  gun-shops,  powder-magazines,  arsen- 
als, and  even  museums  were  broken  open.  On 
Wednesday,  there  was  a  new  city  government  in 
the  Hotel  de  Ville;  everywhere  hung  the  tri-col- 
oured  banner  of  Napoleon  and  the  Republic;  and 
the  tocsin  called  out  a  hundred  thousand  rebels  in 
arms.  The  weapons  of  Crusaders  were  seen  side  by 
side  with  the  bayonets  and  uniforms  of  the  National 
Guard,  which  had  been  revived  by  Napoleon  but 
disbanded  by  Charles  X. 

Marmont's  orders  were  to  clear  the  streets  that 
afternoon ;  but  the  soldiers  were  met  everywhere  by 
a  heavy  fire  and  a  shower  of  paving  stones  and  fur- 
niture. One  patriotic  girl  was  said  to  have  sacrificed 
her  piano.  All  the  detachments  were  finally  hemmed 
in  between  barricades  and  crowds  of  rebels  with 
pikes,  muskets,  and  bayonets.  During  the  night 
they  were  concentrated  around  the  Tuileries,  where 
they  suffered  greatly  from  hunger  and  thirst,  as  they 
had  done  during  the  day.  Their  ammunition  was 
almost  exhausted ;  and  new  barricades  were  put  up 
around  them.  Marmont  ordered  that  there  should 
be  no  more  firing,  except  in  self-defence,  and  tried 
in  vain  to  make  truce  with  the  rebels.  The  latter 
were  joined  on  Thursday  by  the  regiments  in  the 
Place  Vendome.  This  position  was  entrusted  to 
part  of  the  Swiss  who  had  defended  the  Louvre ; 
but  the  others  were  soon  driven  out  by  men  and 


38       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

boys  who  swarmed  in  at  unguarded  doors  and  win- 
dows. All  the  soldiers  took  flight  that  noon  from 
Paris. 

All  this  time  the  King  was  amusing  himself  at  St. 
Cloud,  and  boasting  that  there  would  be  no  conces- 
sions. He  now  offered  to  dismiss  his  Ministry  and 
revoke  the  ordinances;  but  more  than  a  thousand 
lives  had  been  lost.  The  Parisians  marched  against 
him :  he  abdicated  and  fled :  the  Bourbons  had 
ceased  to  reign.  The  men  who  had  fought  against 
him  called  for  a  republic  with  universal  suffrage  and 
no  State  church;  but  the  wealthier  citizens  were 
afraid  of  war  with  Russia  and  Austria.  A  descend- 
ant of  Louis  XIII.  and  a  friend  of  Thiers  was  made 
King  by  the  Legislature.  He  called  himself  Louis 
Philippe,  and  promised  cordially  to  carry  out  the 
Constitution,  which  now  meant  freedom  of  the 
press,  and  equal  privileges  for  all  Christian  churches. 
The  supremacy  of  Rome  in  France  was  at  an  end. 
Seats  in  the  Upper  House  could  no  longer  be  in- 
herited ;  and  the  right  to  vote  for  deputies  was 
given  to  twice  as  many  Frenchmen  as  before.  Pa- 
triots in  all  nations  were  encouraged;  and  the  Swiss 
cantons  became  more  democratic;  but  Hegel  was 
frightened  to  death. 

Among  other  results  were  unsuccessful  revolts  in 
Rome  and  Warsaw,  with  successful  ones  in  Brus- 
sels, Cassell,  and  Dresden.  The  subjection  to  Hol- 
land, which  had  been  imposed  by  the  Congress  of 
Vienna,  was  hated  by  the  Belgians,  partly  because  it 
made  education  secular,  and  partly  because  it  gave 
them  only  half  the  Legislature,  and  very  few  offices 
elsewhere,  although  they  formed  three-fifths  of  the 


Fruits  of  Peace  39 

population.  Priests  were  active  in  stirring  up  the 
revolt  which  began  at  Brussels  on  August  25,  1830, 
after  the  performance  of  an  opera  telling  how  Ma- 
saniello  had  set  Naples  free.  The  Dutch  were  driven 
out;  Belgium  was  made  a  separate  constitutional 
monarchy  by  the  vote  of  a  convention  of  deputies; 
France  and  England  helped  her  maintain  political 
independence ;  but  it  was  to  the  loss  of  intellectual 
liberty. 

V.  The  success  of  rebellion  with  the  pressure  of 
hard  times  enabled  the  Whigs  to  carry  England  for 
parliamentary  reform.  Peel  and  Wellington  hast- 
ened their  fall  by  boasting  that  there  could  be  no 
improvement  of  a  Legislature  which  accepted  mem- 
bers for  places  without  any  inhabitants,  but  not  for 
Birmingham,  Leeds,  Manchester,  or  some  parts  of 
London,  and  which  actually  enabled  one  Scotch- 
man to  elect  himself  as  sole  representative  of  four- 
teen thousand  people,  in  a  district  where  he  was  the 
only  voter. 

The  people  were  so  discontented  with  the  whole 
system  of  Church  and  State,  that  thousands  of 
sympathisers  gathered  around  Cobbett  in  July, 
1 83 1,  when  he  was  tried  for  printing  a  state- 
ment that  riots  of  farm  hands  were  doing  good 
in  forcing  the  clergy  to  reduce  their  tithes.  Lord 
Brougham,  who  had  been  made  Chancellor,  was 
among  the  witnesses  to  the  generally  pacific  ten- 
dency of  Cobbett's  writings.  The  jury  did  not 
agree ;  and  the  Government  gave  up  the  case. 
There  was  but  little  more  political  persecution  of 
British  authors. 


40       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Reform  triumphed  that  autumn  in  the  House  of 
Commons.  The  House  of  Lords  would  then  have 
been  conquered,  if  the  bishops  had  acted  hke  suc- 
cessors of  the  apostles;  but  twenty-one  out  of 
twenty-three  voted  for  prolonging  their  own  do- 
minion. Their  conduct  made  it  unsafe  for  them  to 
wear  their  peculiar  costume  in  the  streets.  Bells 
tolled,  and  newspapers  put  on  mourning.  There 
were  riots  in  all  the  cathedral  towns.  A  duke's 
castle  was  burned,  because  he  insisted  that  the  votes 
of  his  tenants  were  his  private  property,  and  at- 
tempts to  punish  the  incendiaries  brought  Bristol, 
one  Sunday,  into  the  hands  of  a  mob  which  burned 
the  bishop's  palace,  the  custom-house,  and  many 
other  buildings.  It  was  agreed  by  a  meeting  of  a 
hundred  thousand  people  at  Birmingham,  that  no 
more  taxes  should  be  paid  until  Parliament  was  re- 
formed ;  and  on  very  many  houses,  especially  in 
London,  there  was  the  following  notice:  "  To  save 
the  Collector  unnecessary  trouble,  he  is  informed 
that  No  Taxes  on  this  house  will  be  paid,  until  the 
Reform  Bill  pass  into  a  Law."  It  was  at  a  meeting 
to  encourage  this  course  that  Sydney  Smith,  who 
had  done  good  service  for  Catholic  emancipation, 
told  how  vainly  Mrs.  Partington  tried  to  sweep  back 
the  Atlantic,  during  a  great  storm,  and  added :  "  Be 
quiet  and  steady.     You  will  beat  Mrs.  Partington." 

The  episcopal  Partingtons  continued  to  be  even 
more  hostile  than  the  lay  members  of  the  House  of 
Lords;  but  all  finally  yielded  to  the  threat  that 
there  would  be  new  peers  enough  created  to  vote 
them  down.  A  popular  song  made  the  Reform  Bill 
boast  that, 


Fruits  of  Peace  41 

"  Twenty  peers  shall  carry  me, 
If  twenty  won't,  then  forty  will  ; 
For  I  'm  his  Majesty's  bouncing  Bill." 

The  throne  was  then  filled  by  William  IV.,  who 
reigned  from  1830  to  1837,  ^^^  ^^ho  gave  his  con- 
sent, though  sometimes  unwillingly,  to  several  of 
the  greatest  reforms  ever  passed  in  England.  The 
bill  which  he  signed  on  June  7,  1832,  enabled  141 
members  of  Parliament  to  be  elected  by  populous 
districts  hitherto  unrepresented,  instead  of  by  little 
boroughs  where  the  voters  were  so  few  as  to  be 
bought  up  easily,  or  else  intimidated  constantly ; 
and  the  franchise  was  also  much  extended,  though 
not  outside  of  the  middle  class.  Thus  Great  Britain 
ceased  to  be  governed  by  a  league  of  irresponsible 
nobles,  bishops,  and  other  lords  of  vast  estates. 

VI.  They  had  kept  the  lower  classes  ignorant,  in 
order  to  secure  obedience;  and  their  methods  were 
not  given  up  at  once.  Newspapers  had  already  be- 
come the  chief  teachers  of  politics;  and  therefore 
they  were  under  a  triple  tax.  A  duty  on  paper 
added  one-fourth  to  the  cost  of  publication.  There 
was  also  a  tax  of  three-and-sixpence  on  each  ad- 
vertisement; and  more  of  this  lucrative  business 
was  done  by  the  publishers  in  New  York  City  than 
by  all  those  in  Great  Britain.  A  third  exaction  was 
that  of  fourpence  for  a  stamp  on  every  copy;  and 
prices  were  thus  prevented  from  falling  below  seven- 
pence,  except  in  case  of  violation  of  the  laws. 
These  threatened  fine  or  imprisonment  to  whoever 
should  publish  or  sell  any  periodical  costing  less 
than  sixpence,  and  containing  "  news,  intelligence. 


42        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

occurrences,  and  remarks  and  observations  thereon, 
tending  to  excite  hatred  and  contempt  of  the  gov- 
ernment and  constitution  of  this  country  as  by  law 
estabhshed,  and  also  to  vilify  religion."  This  pur- 
pose was  avowed  explicitly,  in  so  many  words,  by 
TJie  Poor  Mail  s  Guardian,  which  announced  that 
it  was  published  "  contrary  to  law  "  and  would  be 
sold  for  one  penny.  The  circulation  was  twice  that 
of  TJie  Times,  and  the  language  often  violent.  The 
publisher,  Hetherington,  was  sent  twice  to  prison 
for  six  months;  and  could  not  go  about  except  dis- 
guised as  a  Quaker.  His  papers  were  packed  in 
chests  of  tea,  by  an  agent  who  was  afterwards 
mayor  of  Manchester.  Another  publisher,  who 
devoted  himself  to  reports  of  criminal  trials,  used 
to  send  them  out  in  coffins.  Many  unstamped 
periodicals  were  in  circulation.  Some  dealers  car- 
ried them  about  in  their  hats  and  pockets.  Others 
hawked  them  in  the  streets,  and  declared,  when 
sentenced  to  prison,  that  they  should  resume  the 
business  on  the  same  spot  as  soon  as  they  were  re- 
leased. Paid  informers  and  spies  helped  the  Whig 
Government  carry  on  more  than  two  hundred  pro- 
secutions in  1835,  and  more  than  five  hundred  pre- 
viously. Subscription  boxes  for  the  relief  of  the 
martyrs  could  be  seen  everywhere.  Remonstrances 
were  signed  and  indignation  meetings  held  in 
London  and  Manchester.  "  The  Society  for  the 
Repeal  of  All  Taxes  on  Knowledge  "  kept  up  a 
vigorous  agitation,  which  was  aided  by  Bulwer  in 
Parliament.  At  last  the  publishers  who  bought 
stamps  found  they  could  not  compete  with  men 
who  bought  none.     This  duty,  and  also  that  on  ad- 


Fruits  of  Peace  43 

vertisements,  were  reduced  in  1836;  and  the  result 
was  so  gratifying,  even  to  publishers  of  the  best  pe- 
riodicals, that  all  these  taxes  have  been  abolished. 

Protestant  bigotry  had  not  prevented  unsectarian 
public  schools  from  being  opened  in  Ireland  in  1833  J 
and  that  year  is  also  memorable  for  the  abolition 
of  slavery  in  the  West  Indies,  the  extension  of  uni- 
versal suffrage  in  Scotland,  the  beginning  of  free 
trade  with  India  and  China,  the  removal  of  dis- 
ability for  ofifice  from  Hindoo  subjects  of  Great 
Britain,  the  protection  of  children  from  being  over- 
worked in  factories,  and  the  suppression  of  super- 
numerary bishops  and  rectors  in  Ireland. 

During  the  next  three  years,  the  local  government 
of  most  English  towns  and  cities,  though  not  yet  of 
London,  was  taken  from  corrupt  oligarchies  and 
given  to  all  inhabitants  who  paid  even  a  moderate 
rent ;  seamen  ceased  to  be  impressed ;  Irish  Catho- 
lics and  English  dissenters  were  enabled  to  marry 
without  apostasy;  vexatious  methods  of  collecting 
tithes  were  abolished  in  England;  the  poor-laws 
were  made  less  favourable  to  the  increase  of  pauper- 
ism ;  and  the  growth  of  prosperity  and  independence 
among  the  poor  was  assisted  by  the  introduction  of 
a  system  of  unsectarian  education,  in  1839,  though 
the  bishops  would  have  preferred  that  one-third  of 
the  people  of  England  should  remain  illiterate. 
Penny  postage  was  established  in  1840,  the  last 
year  when  Great  Britain  was  governed  by  the  Whigs. 

Parliament  was  so  philanthropic  and  tolerant  as  to 
reject  repeatedly  a  proposal  to  impose  heavy  fines 
for  attending  secular  meetings,  visiting  eating- 
houses,  travelling,  fishing,  or  hiring  horses  on  Sun- 


44        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

day.  Labour,  too,  was  to  be  forbidden,  but  not 
that  of  "  menial  servants."  This  bill  would  have 
prevented  the  poor  from  enjoying  their  only  holi- 
day; but  there  was  to  be  no  interference  with  the 
pleasures  of  the  rich;  and  the  fact  was  pointed  out 
by  a  young  man,  whose  Pickwick  Papers  had  just 
begun  to  appear  in  monthly  parts.  His  illustrated 
pamphlet  is  entitled:  Sunday  as  it  Is;  as  Sabbath 
Bills  ivould  Make  it ;  as  it  miglit  be  Made.  It  has 
been  reprinted  with  his  plays  and  poems.  He  tells 
how  much  was  done  for  the  health  and  happiness 
of  London  by  those  privileges  which  the  Sabbatari- 
ans were  trying  to  abolish ;  and  he  shows  what 
gain  there  would  be  in  knowledge  and  virtue  from 
opening  all  the  museums  and  galleries  Sunday 
afternoons. 

The  pamphlet  shows  that  delight  in  the  bright 
side  of  life,  and  that  sympathy  with  the  pleasures 
of  the  poor,  which  won  popularity  for  TJie  Pickivick 
Papers  in  1836,  and  afterwards  for  The  Old  Curiosity 
Shop  and  the  Christmas  Carol.  The  novels  most 
like  Sunday  as  it  Is,  however,  are  such  protests 
against  bigotry  and  cruelty  as  Oliver  Tzvist,  Nicho- 
las Nickleby,  and  Barnaby  Rudge.  Powerful  pictures 
of  the  gloom  of  that  British  Sabbath  which  locked 
up  everything  "  that  could  by  any  possibility  afford 
relief  to  an  overworked  people,"  may  be  found  in 
Little  Dorr  it  \  and  the  plot  turns  on  the  Sabbatari- 
anism of  a  cruel  fanatic  who  had  made  felony  part 
of  her  religion.  Much  was  done  by  this  novel,  as 
well  as  by  Pickivick  and  Nicholas  Nickleby  towards 
the  abolition  of  imprisonment  for  debt  in  1869.  His 
tone  was  very  mild,  compared  with  that  of  the  popu- 


Fruits  of  Peace  45 

lar  orators.  Resistance  to  bad  laws  was  urged  by 
Richard  Carlile;  and  a  clergyman  named  Taylor, 
who  held  the  Gospel  to  be  a  solar  myth,  was  im- 
prisoned on  October  24,  1827,  for  saying  that  the 
first  martyrs  for  Jesus  Christ  were  the  Gadarene 
pigs.  Another  London  lecturer  declared  on  Sunday 
evening,  December  2,  1832,  that  "  The  elective 
franchise  should  belong  to  women,  as  a  part  of  the 
people,"  and  again  that  "  Women  are  qualified  to 
elect  and  to  be  elected  to  all  public  offices."  "Any 
argument  for  exclusion  is  of  that  kind  which  has 
justified  every  tyranny,"  says  this  discourse,  which 
was  printed  for  the  first  time,  on  May  11,  1833,  i^^ 
an  American  newspaper,  TJie  Free  Enquirer.  Its 
columns  show  that  a  young  lady  had  already  pre- 
sented very  advanced  ideas  as  a  lecturer  at  the 
Rotunda  in  London  ;  but  the  general  opinion  of  the 
sex  was  expressed  by  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  John 
Sandford,  whose  popular  book  declared  that ' '  There 
is  something  unfeminine  in  independence.  A  really 
sensible  woman  .  .  .  is  conscious  of  inferiority." 
The  Irish  have  supported  themselves  so  success- 
fully in  America,  and  obeyed  the  laws  so  generally, 
as  to  prove  that  failure  to  do  either  in  Ireland  should 
not  be  attributed  to  their  race  or  their  religion,  but 
wholly  to  their  oppression.  Memory  of  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  was  all  the  more 
bitter  in  the  nineteenth,  because  the  destitution  of 
the  peasantry  was  increasing  hopelessly.  Removal 
of  religious  disabilities  and  reform  of  Parliament  did 
not  prevent  bands  of  armed  peasants  from  fighting 
against  attempts  to  take  away  their  cattle  in  pay- 
ment of  the  tithes  exacted  by  well-paid  dignitaries 


46       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

of  the  hated  Church.  It  sometimes  happened  that 
a  dozen  of  the  combatants  were  killed,  Sydney 
Smith  estimated  that  this  way  of  keeping  up  a  state 
church  cost  a  million  lives,  from  first  to  last,  and 
Ireland  had  to  be  as  heavily  garrisoned  as  India, 
until  a  less  vexatious  system  was  established  in 
1838.  Municipal  government  was  wholly  in  the 
hands  of  little  corporations,  which  had  the  sole 
power  of  electing  new  members  and  seldom  ad- 
mitted a  Catholic.  The  ruling  oligarchy  was  to- the 
population  as  one  to  two  hundred  in  Limerick,  and 
only  as  one  to  twenty-five  hundred  in  Protestant 
Belfast.  The  right  of  local  self-government  was 
given  to  the  people  of  these  cities  and  a  few  others 
in  1 840;  but  even  this  small  and  tardy  justice  pro- 
voked an  English  bishop  to  threaten  that  it  would 
call  down  vengeance  from  God.  Full  municipal 
suffrage  throughout  the  island  and  a  domestic  Par- 
liament were  demanded  by  all  Ireland,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  mighty  orator  O'Connell;  but  the 
prejudice  against  his  cause  in  Great  Britain  was 
made  invincible  by  his  denouncing  "  the  Saxons," 
as  he  called  the  English,  for  the  crimes  of  their 
ancestors. 

VII.  All  reforms  stopped  in  1841,  when  the 
Whigs  lost  the  supremacy.  It  was  not  their  fault 
that  excess  in  speculation  on  both  sides  of  the  At- 
lantic had  brought  on  a  panic  which  threw  thou- 
sands of  people  out  of  work  in  the  factory  towns, 
and  reduced  other  thousands  to  earning  only  two- 
pence a  day.  A  succession  of  bad  harvests,  just 
before    1841,    made  wages  very  low  on  the  farms, 


Fruits  of  Peace  47 

and  food  too  dear  everywhere.  Bread  was  sold  in 
halfpenny  slices;  labourers  robbed  pigs  of  swill; 
children  fought  with  dogs  for  bones  in  the  streets; 
one  person  in  every  eleven  was  a  pauper;  and  Eng- 
land seemed  to  Dickens  like  one  vast  poorhouse. 
The  old  ways  of  giving  charity  had  been  so  lavish 
and  indiscriminate  as  to  encourage  pauperism  ;  the 
new  system  of  relief  proved  really  kinder;  but  at 
first  it  was  administered  too  slowly  and  cautiously 
for  the  emergency ;  and  there  was  some  ground  for 
the  complaints  in  Oliver  Tiuist.  Knowledge  that 
paupers  were  neglected  strengthened  the  belief  of 
the  working-men,  that  all  they  needed  to  make 
them  as  well  off  as  their  brethren  in  America  was 
the  ballot.  Paine,  Cobbett,  and  Hetherington  were 
widely  read ;  manhood  suffrage  and  a  secret  ballot 
were  called  "the  People's  Charter";  and  there 
were  more  than  a  million  signatures  to  the  Chartist 
petition  in  1839.  These  demands  were  just;  but 
about  one  Englishman  in  three  was  unable  to  write 
his  name  at  this  time;  and  many  who  had  acquired 
this  accomplishment  knew  dangerously  little  about 
politics.  When  we  think  how  much  mischief  has 
recently  been  done  in  the  United  States  by  illiter- 
ate and  venal  votes,  we  cannot  blame  Englishmen 
of  the  upper  and  middle  classes  for  delaying  to  grant 
universal  suffrage.  They  ought  to  have  made  rapid 
preparation  for  it,  by  liberal  encouagement  of  pop- 
ular education  through  free  schools  and  a  cheap 
press;  but  even  the  Whigs  were  too  indignant  at 
the  violence  of  the  Chartists,  who  made  bloody 
riots  in  1841.  How  ignorant  these  men  were  was 
shown  by  their  doing  their  worst  that  year  to  help 


48       Liberty  In  the  Nineteenth  Century 

carry  the  elections  against  the  Whigs,  who  were 
much  less  hostile  to  Chartism  than  the  Conserva- 
tives, as  those  Tories  were  called  who  still  conde- 
scended to  politics. 

The  most  culpable  blunder  of  the  Whigs  had  been 
that  of  allowing  the  revenue  to  fall  below  the  ex- 
penses ;  and  the  policy  they  had  proposed  for 
making  up  the  deficit  was  too  much  like  that  half- 
hearted way  of  dealing  with  slavery  which  brought 
ruin  upon  the  party  of  the  same  name  in  America. 
The  British  tariff  was  raised  by  the  war  against  Na- 
poleon, as  the  American  was  under  similar  pressure 
afterwards,  so  high  as  in  some  cases  to  prohibit 
imports  and  actually  check  revenue.  Either  tariff 
could  have  been  used  as  an  almost  complete  list  of 
the  world's  products;  and  both  were  framed  on  the 
principle  of  protecting  everybody,  except  consum- 
ers, against  competition.  Great  Britain  unfortun- 
ately could  produce  only  part  of  the  food  needed 
by  the  people;  and  the  tariff  was  so  much  in  the 
interest  of  owners  of  land  as  to  make  bread  and 
meat  dearer  than  if  the  island  had  been  barren. 
Importation  of  cattle  was  prohibited ;  and  that  of 
wheat  and  other  grain  was  not  permitted  until  prices 
were  high  enough  to  cause  famine.  Then  importa- 
tion would  begin  slowly,  and  keep  increasing  until 
the  supply  of  both  foreign-  and  home-grown  wheat 
would  become  large  enough  to  glut  the  market  and 
make  farmers  bankrupt.  These  duties  on  grain, 
which  were  known  as  the  corn  laws,  acted  with 
similar  taxes  on  all  other  necessaries  of  life  in  im- 
poverishing factory  hands  and  other  members  of  the 
working  class.      They  were  told  that  the  laws  which 


Fruits  of  Peace  49 

kept  living  dear  kept  wages  high ;  but  we  shall  see 
that  this  turned  out  not  to  be  the  fact.  The  only 
real  gainers  by  the  corn  laws  were  those  wealthy 
owners  of  great  estates  of  whom  Parliament  was 
composed  entirely,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

That  body  allowed  Manchester  and  other  factory 
towns  to  send  representatives  who  had  found  out 
the  tendency  of  protectionism  from  their  own  busi- 
ness experience,  as  well  as  from  study  of  political 
economy.  Among  these  men  was  Cobden,  who  had 
already  planted  himself  in  the  road  to  wealth,  but 
who  preferred  to  remain  poor  that  he  might  make 
England  rich.  He  and  his  associates  knew  that  im- 
ports are  paid  for  by  exporting  what  can  be  pro- 
duced most  profitably;  that  nothing  is  imported 
which  could  be  produced  as  cheaply  at  home ;  that 
large  imports  make  large  exports ;  that  the  average 
Englishman  knows  how  to  carry  on  his  own  business; 
and  that  the  Government  could  not  encourage  any 
otherwise  unprofitable  industry  without  checking 
the  really  profitable  ones.  On  these  facts  were  based 
the  following  predictions.  In  the  first  place,  free 
trade  in  grain  and  cattle  would  lower  the  average 
price  of  food  in  England,  and  make  the  supply  so 
regular  that  there  would  be  no  more  famines.  Sec- 
ond, those  countries  which  were  allowed  to  send 
grain  and  cattle,  cotton  and  other  raw  materials, 
etc.,  to  England  would  buy  British  manufactures  in 
return.  Third,  removal  of  duties  from  raw  ma- 
terials would  enable  factories  to  produce  goods  more 
cheaply,  and  sell  larger  quantities  at  home  as  well 
as  abroad.     Then,  fourth,  this  increased  activity  in 


50  Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century- 
manufacturing  would  raise  wages,  while  remission 
of  duties  would  make  all  the  necessaries  of  life 
cheaper,  so  that  pauperism  would  diminish  and 
prosperity  become  more  general  in  the  working 
class.  And  finally,  the  commerce  of  England  with 
other  countries  would  grow  rapidly  to  their  mutual 
benefit;  and  thus  international  relations  would  be 
kept  friendly  by  free  trade. 

In  this  faith  the  reformers  at  Manchester  and  Bir- 
mingham asserted  the  right  of  all  men  to  buy  and 
sell  freely,  and  demanded  the  removal  of  all  duties 
except  those  best  adapted  to  bring  in  necessary 
revenue.  They  were  wise  enough  to  attack  the 
monstrous  tarifT  at  its  weakest  point,  the  tax  on 
bread.  The  Anti-Corn-Law  League  was  organised 
in  1839;  the  spot  where  the  Peterloo  massacre  had 
been  perpetrated,  twenty  years  before,  was  soon 
used  for  a  free  trade  banquet  in  which  five  thousand 
working-men  took  part;  and  appeals  to  the  people 
were  made  in  all  parts  of  England.  The  Conserva- 
tives were  all  protectionists;  and  so  many  Whigs 
were  on  that  side  that  those  leaders  who  were  op- 
posed to  the  bread  tax  did  not  dare  to  come  out 
against  it.  They  did  propose  in  1841  to  meet  the 
deficit  in  the  revenue  by  reducing  some  duties 
which  were  so  high  as  to  prevent  importation,  for 
instance,  the  tax  on  all  sugar  not  grown  in  British 
colonies.  The  protectionist  Whigs  voted  with  the 
Conservatives  against  the  Ministry;  and  it  had  to 
go  out  of  office  without  having  done  enough  against 
the  corn  laws  to  secure  the  support  of  the  League. 
Protectionists,  Chartists,  and  opponents  of  the  new 
poor-law  helped  to  give  the  Conservatives  control  of 


Fruits  of  Peace  51 

the  next  Parliament,  where  the  free-traders  were 
one  to  four. 

Such  was  the  state  of  things  in  October,  1841, 
when  the  League  went  to  work  more  vigorously 
than  before  in  educating  the  people,  and  especially 
voters  of  the  poorer  class.  During  the  next  twelve 
months,  half  a  million  dollars  was  spent  in  this  work. 
In  1843,  there  were  fourteen  regular  lecturers  in  the 
field,  besides  countless  volunteers,  and  five  hundred 
distributors  of  tracts.  The  annual  number  of  pub- 
lications was  about  ten  million  copies;  and  the 
annual  weight  exceeded  a  hundred  tons.  The  dis- 
senting ministers  did  good  work  for  reform  ;  but 
the  Episcopalian  clergy  were  too  friendly  to  a  tax 
which  kept  up  the  value  of  tithes.  The  League 
soon  had  the  support  of  John  Bright,  who  was  one 
of  the  greatest  of  British  orators.  Prominent  among 
opponents  was  the  Chartist  leader,  Feargus  O'Con- 
nor ;  and  those  Chartists  who  were  not  protectionists 
held  that  their  cause  ought  to  take  the  lead.  Public 
opinion  was  so  strongly  for  free  trade  in  1845  that 
Parliament  took  off  the  duties  from  cotton  and  other 
raw  materials,  in  hope  of  conciliating  the  man- 
ufacturers; but  these  latter  redoubled  their  efforts 
to  abolish  the  tax  on  food.  Subscriptions  were 
larger  than  ever;  and  much  land  was  bought  by 
free-traders  who  wished  to  qualify  themselves  as 
voters  for  members  of  the  next  Parliament,  which 
would  have  to  be  elected  in  or  before  1848. 

Reform  seemed  still  distant,  when  Shelley's  proph- 
ecy was  fulfilled.  Freedom's  eternal  foe,  Famine, 
came  suddenly  to  her  help.  Dearness  of  wheat  and 
meat  had  obliged  half  of  the  Irish  and  many  of  the 


52        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

English  to  hve  entirely  on  potatoes.  Wages  were 
often  paid  in  Ireland  by  loan  of  land  for  raising  this 
crop.  The  rot  which  began  in  August,  1845,  soon 
became  so  destructive  that  Peel,  who  was  then  Prime 
Minister,  proposed  in  October  that  grain  should  be 
made  free  of  duty.  Wellington  and  other  members 
of  the  Cabinet  demurred ;  and  the  question  had  to 
be  submitted  to  Parliament.  Disraeli  insisted  to  the 
last  on  keeping  up  the  tariff;  but  famine  was  in- 
creasing; and  both  Houses  finally  agreed,  after  long 
debate,  to  accept  Peel's  proposal,  that  not  only  the 
duties  on  food  and  raw  materials,  but  most  of  the 
others,  should  be  either  reduced  or  abolished.  His 
conservatism  did  not  keep  him  from  seeing  that  the 
whole  system  of  protecting  home  industries  must 
stand  or  fall  together.  Prominent  among  obstruc- 
tionists were  the  bishops.  The  House  of  Lords  did 
not  agree  before  June  25,  1846,  to  the  reform  which 
had  been  accepted  on  May  15th  by  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  which  was  publicly  acknowledged 
by  Wellington  to  be  inevitable.  Such  was  the  ex- 
asperation of  the  protectionists  that  they  helped  the 
opponents  of  coercion  in  Ireland  to  drive  Peel  out 
of  office,  by  a  vote  which  was  taken  in  the  House  of 
Commons  on  the  very  day  when  his  plan  of  tariff 
reform  gained  that  victory  in  the  House  of  Lords 
which  made  free  trade  for  ever  the  system  of  Great 
Britain. 

About  one-half  of  the  import  duties  are  now 
levied  on  tobacco,  one-fourth  more  on  wine  and 
strong  drink;  and  most  of  the  rest  on  tea  and  other 
groceries.  Duties  on  articles  which  could  be  pro- 
duced in  Great  Britain  are  offset  by  internal-revenue 


Fruits  of  Peace  53 

taxes.  No  monopoly  is  given  to  farm  or  factory ; 
no  necessary  article  is  made  too  dear  for  the  poor; 
and  there  are  no  needless  violations  of  the  right 
of  the  labourer  to  spend  his  wages  in  the  best 
market. 

This  reform  made  the  relief  of  Ireland  possible, 
though  the  loss  of  life  was  terrible.  Never  again 
has  England  been  so  near  to  a  famine  as  in  1841. 
Food  is  now  so  plenty  that  five  times  as  much  sugar 
is  used  in  proportion  to  population  as  in  1842.  and 
more  than  twice  as  much  butter  and  eggs.  This 
does  not  mean  that  the  millionaire  eats  five  times  as 
much  sugar,  or  twice  as  many  eggs,  as  before,  but 
that  poor  people  can  now  buy  freely  what  formerly 
were  almost  unattainable  luxuries.  The  proportion 
of  money  in  savings  banks  in  England  and  Wales 
has  doubled;  and  that  of  paupers  sank  from  i  in  11 
in  1842  to  I  in  37  in  1895.  Wages  have  risen  fifty 
per  cent.,  while  other  prices  have  fallen  ;  and  British 
workmen  are  better  off  than  any  others  in  Europe. 
The  annual  value  of  English  exports  declined  stead- 
ily from  181 5  to  1842;  but  it  is  now  four  times  as 
great  as  in  the  latter  year;  and  it  is  more  than  twice 
as  large  in  proportion  to  population  as  in  those 
highly  protected  countries,  the  United  States  and 
France.  Low  tariffs  also  enable  Belgium  to  export 
nearly  three  times  as  much  for  each  inhabitant  as 
France,  and  New  South  Wales  to  export  five  times 
as  much  as  the  United  States,  Large  exports  do 
not  depend  on  density  of  population  but  on  ability 
to  import  freely.  Readiness  of  any  country  to  buy 
freely  of  her  neighbours  keeps  them  able  and  willing 
to  buy  whatever  she  has  to  sell.      Free  trade  has 


54       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

given  Great  Britain,  New  South  Wales,  and  Belgium 
their  choice  of  the  world's  markets.  Great  Britain 
has  also  been  enabled  to  keep  up  much  more  friendly 
relations  with  the  rest  of  Europe  than  would  other- 
wise have  been  the  case.  Liberty  of  commerce  has 
helped  her  enjoy  peace;  and  peace  has  preserved 
free  institutions. 

The  reforms  which  culminated  in  free  trade 
showed  Englishmen  that  they  could  right  any 
wrong  without  resort  to  violence.  The  attempt  of 
the  Chartists  to  overawe  Parliament  in  1848  was  seen 
to  be  inexcusable  ;  and  it  failed  ridiculously.  Never 
since  then  has  insurrection  in  England  been  even 
possible.  The  atmosphere  of  thought  has  been  so 
quiet  that  suffrage  was  greatly  extended  in  1867, 
and  made  practically  universal  in  1894.  Voters 
gained  the  protection  of  a  secret  ballot  in  1872; 
and  municipal  self-government  was  given  in  1894  to 
every  part  of  England  where  it  had  not  already  been 
established. 

No  wonder  that  there  is  little  of  the  revolutionary 
ardor  of  Shelley  and  Byron  in  Tennyson,  Brown- 
ing, and  other  recent  poets.  They  have  delighted 
in  progress;  but  they  have  seen  that  it  must  come 
through  such  peaceable  changes  in  public  opinion, 
and  then  in  legislation,  as  are  caused  by  free  discus- 
sion. The  benign  influence  of  peace  has  enabled 
them  to  display  such  brilliancy  as  had  not  been  seen 
in  England  for  more  than  two  hundred  years.  No 
other  writers  ever  paid  so  much  attention  to  public 
health  and  the  general  happiness.  The  ablest 
thought  of  the  century  has  been  devoted  to  enrich- 
ing human  life,  and  not  to  destroying  it.      This  has 


Fruits  of  Peace  55 

enabled  science  to  make  unprecedented  progress. 
A  new  period  of  intellectual  history  has  been  opened 
by  Spencer  and  Darwin. 

VIII.  Prominent  among  reformers  who  had  no 
wish  for  revolution,  and  no  respect  for  science,  were 
Dickens  and  Carlyle.  The  latter's  aversion  to  politi- 
cal economy  as  "  the  dismal  science  "  was  echoed 
in  the  pages  of  Hard  Times ;  and  the  absence  of 
any  reference  \Vl  Donibcy  and  Son  to  the  great  move- 
ment against  the  corn  laws  is  characteristic  of  a 
novelist  \y\\osq  Pickwick  Papers  made  fun  of  scientific 
investigation.  What  was  there  called  the  "  tittle- 
bat "  is  really  that  nest-building  fish,  the  stickle- 
back. Passages  ridiculing  the  use  of  statistics  might 
be  quoted  at  great  length  from  both  authors.  Dick- 
ens had  too  much  sympathy  with  paupers,  especially 
those  who  suffered  under  the  poor-law  of  1834;  and 
Carlyle  had  much  too  little.  They  agreed  in  oppos- 
ition to  model  prisons  and  other  new  forms  of 
philanthropy.  Perhaps  it  was  mainly  the  habit  of 
indiscriminate  ridicule  which  suggested  such  carica- 
tures as  Mrs.  Jellaby  and  Mrs.  Pardiggle.  Carlyle's 
belief  that  abolitionism  was  "  an  alarming  Devil's 
Gospel  "  and  his  denunciation  of  "  the  sugary,  dis- 
astrous jargon  of  philanthropy  "  were  legitimate 
results  of  idolatry  of  what  he  called  "  early,  earnest 
times,"  namely  the  Dark  Ages.  His  sympathy  with 
mediaeval  methods  was  so  narrow  that  he  spoke  of  a 
poet  of  weak  health  and  high  culture,  whom  he  saw 
suffering  under  a  sentence  of  two  years  in  a  pestilen- 
tial prison,  forbidden  books  or  writing  materials, 
kept  most  of  the  time  alone  and  on  bread  and  water, 


56       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

but  guilty  of  nothing  worse  than  a  Chartist  speech, 
as  "  master  of  his  own  time  and  spiritual  resources 
to,  as  I  supposed,  a  really  enviable  extent."  Dick- 
ens shows  much  more  appreciation  of  the  real 
superiority  of  modern  times,  though  personal  dis- 
appointments, during  his  visit  to  America,  prevented 
him  from  acknowledging  the  merits  of  democracy. 
Carlyle's  reverence  for  the  early  Hebrews  and  other 
primitive  barbarians  made  him  present  hero-worship 
as  the  only  secure  corner-stone  of  politics.  His  re- 
ceipt for  a  perfect  government  is  this:  "  Find  in 
any  country  the  ablest  man  that  exists  there ;  raise 
him  to  the  supreme  place ;  and  loyally  reverence 
him."  "  Such  a  government  is  not  to  be  improved 
by  voting  or  debating."  "  Neither  except  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  Heaven-chosen  is  freedom  so  much  as 
conceivable."  This  theory  showed  its  own  absurdity 
in  prompting  eulogies  on  Francia  and  other  despots; 
but  Carlyle's  apologies  for  Cromwell  w^ere  of  some 
service  to  the  cause  of  liberty  fifty  years  ago,  when 
England  had  forgotten  to  honour  the  champions  of 
the  Long  Parliament.  ,  Dickens  thought  more  about 
the  asceticism  than  the  independence  of  the  Puritans. 
He  and  Carlyle  have  dispelled  some  of  the  prejudices 
against  the  heroes  of  the  First  Republic;  but  they 
perpetuated  others.  Carlyle's  best  work  was  in  en- 
couraging the  readers  of  his  first  books  to  think  for 
themselves.  The  power  of  Dickens  to  call  out 
sympathy  with  the  unfortunate  will  never  cease  to 
bless  mankind. 

As  much  pity  for  the  outcast  has  been  shown  by 
his  great  rival,  Victor  Hugo,  and  even  more  fellow- 
feeling  with  the  oppressed.     The  spirit  which  has 


Fruits  of  Peace  57 

made  France  free  animates  all  his  writings,  espe- 
cially those  grand  poems  which  were  called  out  by 
the  usurpation  of  Louis  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  His 
early  dramas  deklt  so  vigorously  with  royal  weakness 
and  vice  that  Marion  de  Lorvie  was  suppressed  by 
Charles  X.  and  Le  Rot  s' amuse  by  Louis  Philippe. 
The  work  which  has  made  him  best  known,  and 
which  appeared  in  1862  in  nine  languages,  is  a  plea 
for  mercy  to  criminals,  or  in  his  own  words,  to  "  the 
miserable."  The  chief  aim  is  to  show  "  the  oppres- 
sion of  laws,"  and  the  mistake  of  aiding  the  tyranny 
of  the  police  by  thinking  too  severely  of  the  fallen. 
He  finds  an  opportunity  to  introduce  an  enthusiastic 
panegyric  on  the  victories  of  Napoleon,  closing  with 
the    question  :    "  What    could    be    more  grand  ?" 

To  be  free,"  is  the  reply.  Full  justice  to  the 
French  Revolution  is  done  by  that  most  dramatic 
of  novels,  Ninety-TJiree.  Here  he  says:  "  The 
agony  of  the  nations  ended  with  the  fall  of  the  Bas- 
tile."  "  Perhaps  the  Convention  is  the  culmination 
of  history."  "  It  declared  poverty  and  disability 
sacred."  "  It  branded  the  slave-trade,  and  freed 
the  blacks."     "  It  decreed   gratuitous  education." 

The  object  of  two-thirds  of  its  decrees  was  phi- 
lanthropic." Such  facts  are  all  the  more  worthy 
of  mention,  because  they  were  omitted  by  Carlyle. 

SUPPLEMENT   TO   CHAPTER   II 

I.  Thomas  Carlyle's  prejudice  against  democracy 
was  strengthened  by  the  failure  of  the  revolutions 
of  1848.  Constitutional  monarchy  was  as  hostile  to 
reform    in    France   as  it  was   friendly  in  England. 


58        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Only  one  Frenchman  in  thirty  could  vote;  and  the 
legislature  cared  nothing  for  public  opinion.  Louis 
Philippe  was  hated  for  habitual  dishonesty.  There 
had  been  several  attempts  at  regicide  and  some 
bloody  revolts.  One  of  the  latter  gave  a  basis  from 
history  for  Victor  Hugo's  Mzs^rad/es.  Restrictions 
on  the  press  and  on  public  meetings  increased  the 
unwillingness  of  the  working-men  at  Paris  to  be 
governed  by  the  rich.  Socialism  was  popular,  and 
employment  insufficient.  The  prohibition  of  a  re- 
form banquet  caused  barricades  to  be  thrown  up  on 
February  22d  in  Paris.  The  militia  took  sides  with 
the  populace;  the  King  fled  to  England;  and  all 
France  accepted  the  Republic,  which  was  pro- 
claimed on  February  24th.  Slavery  had  been  re- 
established in  the  colonies  by  Napoleon;  but  it  was 
now  abolished;  and  so  was  capital  punishment  for 
political  offences. 

The  example  of  Paris  was  followed  in  March  by 
successful  insurrections  at  Berlin,  Vienna,  and  other 
German  cities,  as  well  as  in  Lombardy  and  Venice. 
Home  rule  was  demanded  by  Hungary  and  Bohemia, 
and  constitutional  governments  were  soon  estab- 
lished there  as  well  as  in  Austria,  Prussia,  and  other 
German  states,  and  in  every  part  of  Italy.  The 
King  of  Sardinia  took  the  lead  in  a  war  for  driving 
back  the  Austrians  across  the  Alps.  Co-operation 
of  French,  German,  Hungarian,  and  Italian  patriots 
might  have  made  all  these  countries  permanently 
free. 

Such  a  union  would  have  been  difficult  on  ac- 
count of  international  jealousies;  and  it  was  made 
impossible  by  the  Socialists  at  Paris.     Scarcely  had 


Fruits  of  Peace  59 

a  provisional  government  been  set  up,  when  recog- 
nition of  "  the  right  of  employment  "  was  demanded 
by  a  workman,  who  came  musket  in  hand,  and  was 
supported  by  a  multitude  of  armed  artisans.  They 
extorted  a  decree  which  promised  every  citizen 
work  enough  for  his  support.  A  ten-hour  law  was 
passed.  Co-operative  factories  were  started  with 
aid  from  the  city  authorities,  and  had  some  suc- 
cess. Opening  national  workshops  was  not  advised 
by  leading  Socialists;  but  it  was  considered  neces- 
sary by  some  of  the  Ministry  in  order  to  keep  the 
unemployed  from  revolt.  Every  applicant  drew 
money  constantly,  even  if  not  at  work.  What 
little  labour  was  actually  performed  was  done  so 
lazily,  and  paid  so  highly,  that  the  number  of  men 
soon  rose  to  120,000.  The  expenses  became  enorm- 
ous; and  the  tax-payers  insisted  that  they  too  had 
rights.  In  order  to  be  able  to  employ  all  the  labour- 
ers a  government  would  have  to  own  all  the  property ; 
and  it  would  also  have  to  be  strong  enough  to  en- 
force industry.  Even  Victor  Hugo  admitted  that 
the  experiment  had  failed.  The  National  Assembly, 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  notified  the  men  in  the 
shops  that  they  must  enlist  in  the  army,  or  go  to 
work  at  a  safe  distance  from  Paris  on  state  pay,  or 
look  out  for  themselves.  They  rose  in  arms  against 
the  Republic,  and  took  possession  of  nearly  one- 
half  of  the  city  on  June  23.  1848.  "  Bread  or  Lead  " 
was  the  motto  on  their  red  flags;  and  two  of  their 
terrible  barricades  are  described  at  the  beginning  of 
the  last  Part  of  Lcs  Misc'rab/cs.  They  held  out 
against  regular  troops  and  cannon  during  four  days 
of  such  fio-htinfT  as  had  never  been  seen  before  in 


6o       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Paris,  More  Frenchmen  are  supposed  to  have  fallen 
than  in  any  of  Napoleon's  battles.  Two  thousand 
of  the  soldiers  were  slain;  but  no  one  knows  how 
many  times  that  number  of  insurgents  perished  in 
the  fight  or  in  penal  colonies. 

Thenceforth  the  French  Government  was  much 
more  desirous  to  repress  insurrection  at  home  than 
to  sustain  it  abroad.  Louis  Napoleon  Bonaparte 
was  elected  President  that  same  year,  partly  on  ac- 
count of  his  name,  and  partly  on  account  of  his 
promise  that  he  would  defend  the  right  of  private 
property  against  Socialism.  Austrian  generals  of 
the  rough  and  reckless  type  which  Carlyle  loved 
forced  Lombardy  and  Bohemia  back  into  the  Em- 
pire, and  restored  absolute  monarchy  at  Vienna, 
while  the  King  of  Sardinia  was  obliged  to  abdicate 
after  such  a  defeat  in  March,  1849,  ^^  almost  ex- 
tinguished liberty  in  Italy.  Venice  alone  held  out 
against  them  under  that  purest  of  patriots,  Manin, 
and  suffered  terribly  during  a  siege  of  twenty-one 
weeks.  Hungary  was  subdued  that  summer  with 
the  aid  of  Russia.  France  did  nothing  except  to 
revive  the  papal  despotism  at  Rome.  Mazzini's 
republic  was  crushed  by  that  which  had  a  Bona- 
parte for  President.  His  power  had  been  increased 
by  the  disfranchisement  of  several  million  French 
voters  of  the  poorer  class.  His  promise  to  restore 
universal  suffrage  joined  with  memory  of  the  massa- 
cres of  June,  1848,  in  preventing  much  resistance  to 
his  usurpation  of  absolute  power  on  December  2, 
185  I.  There  was  a  monstrous  vote,  next  November, 
for  an  empire,  where  the  centralisation  of  adminis- 
tration was  complete,    and   the  legislature   merely 


Fruits  of  Peace  6i 

ornamental.  Thus  the  liberation  of  Europe  was 
prevented,  partly  by  race  prejudices,  but  mainly  by 
attempts  to  benefit  the  poor  by  overtaxing  the  rich. 
France  and  Hungary  were  left  with  less  political 
liberty  than  before;  and  Italy  gained  very  little; 
but  some  of  the  constitutional  freedom  acquired  in 
1848  was  retained  in  Prussia  and  other  parts  of 
Western  Germany. 

II.  It  was  contrary  to  the  general  tendency  of 
wars,  that  those  of  the  latter  half  of  the  century 
aided  the  growth  of  free  institutions  in  Italy.  An 
honoured  place  among  nations  was  given  by  the 
Crimean  war  to  Sardinia.  Then  her  patriotic  states- 
man, Cavour,  persuaded  Napoleon  III.  to  help  him 
rescue  Lombardy  from  Austria.  Garibaldi  took 
the  opportunity  to  liberate  Naples;  and  Victor 
Emanuel  made  himself  King  over  all  Italy  except 
Rome  and  Venice.  The  latter  city  also  was  brought 
under  a  constitutional  and  friendly  government  by 
a  third  great  war,  which  made  the  King  of  Prussia 
and  his  successors  Emperors  of  Germany,  while  Aus- 
tria was  compelled  to  grant  home  rule  to  Hungary. 
The  liberation  and  secularisation  of  Italy  were  com- 
pleted in  1870  by  the  expulsion  from  Rome  of  the 
French  garrison.  The  Emperor  had  lost  his  throne 
by  waging  war  wantonly  against  a  united  Germany. 

III.  The  Third  Republic  was  soon  obliged  to  fight 
for  her  life  against  the  same  enemy  which  had 
wounded  her  sister  mortally.  Socialism  was  still 
the  religion  of  the  working-men  of  Paris,  who  now 
formed  the  majority  of  the  National  Guard.     In- 


62        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

dignation  at  the  failure  of  the  new  Government  to 
repulse  the  Prussians  led,  on  March  i8,  1871,  to  the 
capture  of  all  Paris  by  what  was  avowedly  the  revo- 
lution of  the  workmen  against  the  shopkeepers,  "  in 
the  name  of  the  rights  of  labour,"  for  "  the  suppres- 
sion of  all  monopolies,"  "  the  reign  of  labour  in- 
stead of  capital,"  and  "  the  emancipation  of  the 
worker  by  himself."  This  was  in  harmony  with 
the  teaching  of  the  International  Working-men's  As- 
sociation, which  endorsed  the  insurrection  fully  and 
formally,  and  which  held  with  Karl  Marx  that 
wealth  is  produced  entirely  by  labour  and  belongs 
only  to  the  working  class.  Socialists  were  active  in 
the  rebellion  ;  but  property-holders  in  Paris  took  no 
part ;  and  all  the  rest  of  France  took  sides  with  the 
Government.  What  professed  to  be  the  rising  of 
the  many  against  the  few  turned  out  to  be  that  of 
the  few  against  the  many.  Impressment  was  neces- 
sary for  manning  the  barricades,  and  pillage  for 
raising  money.  The  general  closing  of  stores,  fac- 
tories, and  ofifices  showed  that  capital  had  been 
frightened  away  by  the  red  flag.  One  of  the  last 
decrees  of  its  defenders  was,  "  Destroy  all  factories 
employing  more  than  fifteen  workers.  This  mono- 
poly crushes  the  artisan."  This  spirit  would  have 
caused  the  confiscation  of  the  funds  of  the  National 
Bank,  if  the  managers  had  not  said:  "  If  you  do 
that,  you  will  turn  the  money  your  own  comrades 
have  in  their  pockets  to  waste  paper."  The  price- 
less pictures  and  statues  in  the  Louvre  were  con- 
demned to  destruction  because  they  represented 
gods,  kings,  and  priests."  Millions  of  dollars 
worth  of  works  of  art  perished  in  company  with 


Fruits  of  Peace  63 

docks,  libraries,  and  public  buildings;  but  this  van- 
dalism, like  the  massacre  of  prisoners,  was  largely 
the  work  of  prpfessional  criminals.  The  capture  of 
Paris,  late  in  May,  was  accompanied  with  pitiless 
slaughter  of  the  rebels,  though  many  lives  were 
saved  by  Victor  Hugo. 

Since  then  the  French  Republic  has  been  able  to 
keep  down  not  only  the  Socialists  but  the  Bonapart- 
ists  and  Royalists.  It  has  also  succeeded,  with  the 
help  of  writers  like  Renan,  in  checking  the  ambition 
of  the  clergy.  Continuance  of  peace  in  Europe  has 
assisted  the  growth  of  local  self-government  in 
France,  and  also  in  Germany.  The  famous  Prus- 
sian victories  seem,  however,  to  have  increased  the 
power  of  the  German  Emperor;  and  there  is  still 
danger  that  the  growth  of  standing  armies  may 
check  that  of  free  institutions. 


CHAPTER  III 


DEMOCRATS   AND   GARRISONIANS 


I.  The  fall  of  the  English  aristocracy  was  hastened 
by  the  success  of  democracy  in  America.  Nowhere 
were  the  masses  more  willing  to  obey  the  law ;  and 
nowhere  else  were  they  so  intelligent  and  prosper- 
ous. The  gains  of  the  many  made  the  country  rich ; 
territory  and  population  increased  rapidly;  and 
Britannia  found  a  dangerous  competitor  on  every 
sea.  Political  liberty  and  equality  were  secured  by 
the  almost  uninterrupted  supremacy  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  from  1800 to  i860.  Twelve  presidential 
elections  out  of  fifteen  were  carried  by  Jefferson  and 
his  successors ;  and  the  Congress  whose  term  began 
in  1 841  was  the  only  one  out  of  the  thirty  in  which 
both  Houses  were  anti-Democratic. 

Political  equality  was  increased  in  State  after  State 
by  dispensing  with  property  qualifications  for  voting 
or  holding  office.  Jefferson  and  his  successor,  Madi- 
son, refused  to  appoint  days  for  fasting  and  giving 
thanks,  or  grant  any  other  special  privileges  to  those 
citizens  who  held  favoured  views  about  religion. 
Congress  after  Congress  refused  to  appoint  chap- 
lains ;  so  did  some  of  the  States ;  and  a  national  law, 

64 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  65 

still  in  force,  for  opening  the  post-offices  on  every 
day  of  the  week,  was  passed  in  18 10.  Many  at- 
tempts were  made  by  Sabbatarians  to  stop  the 
mails;  but  the  Senate  voted  in  1829,  that  "  Our 
government  is  a  civil,  and  not  a  religious  institu- 
tion "  ;  and  the  lower  House  denied  next  year  that 
the  majority  has  "  any  authority  over  the  minority 
except  in  matters  which  regard  the  conduct  of  man 
to  his  fellow-man."  The  opposition  made  by  the 
Federalists  to  the  establishment  of  religious  equality 
in  Connecticut,  in  18 16,  increased  the  odium  which 
they  had  incurred  by  not  supporting  the  war  against 
Great  Britain.  Four  years  later,  the  party  was  prac- 
tically extinct ;  and  the  disestablishment  of  Congre- 
gationalism as  the  state  church  of  Massachusetts,  in 
1833,  was  accomplished  easily. 

The  Northern  States  were  already  so  strong  in 
Congress  that  they  might  have  prevented  Missouri 
from  entering  the  Union  that  year  without  any 
pledge  to  emancipate  her  slaves.  The  sin  of  ex- 
tending the  area  of  bondage  so  far  northwards  was 
scarcely  palliated  by  the  other  conditions  of  the 
compromise.  The  admission  of  Maine  gave  her 
citizens  no  privileges  beyond  what  they  had  pre- 
viously as  citizens  of  Massachusetts;  and  the  pledge 
that  slavery  should  not  again  be  extended  north  of 
latitude  thirty-six,  thirty,  proved  worthless. 

The  North  was  so  far  from  being  united  in  1820 
that  it  was  not  even  able  to  raise  the  tariff.  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ohio  wished  to  exclude 
foreign  competition  in  manufacturing;  but  the  em- 
bargo was  too  recent  for  New  England  to  forget  the 

evils  of   restricting    commerce.      The  Salem   mer- 
5 


66        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

chants  petitioned  for  "  free  trade  "  "as  the  sure 
foundation  of  national  prosperity";  and  the  soHd 
men  of  Boston  declared  with  Webster  that  "  A 
system  of  bounties  and  protection  "  "  would  have  a 
tendency  to  diminish  the  industry,  impede  the  pro- 
sperity, and  corrupt  the  morals  of  the  people." 

II.  The  dark  age  of  American  literature  had 
ended  in  1760.  Before  that  date  there  were  few 
able  books  except  about  theology ;  and  there  were 
not  many  during  the  next  sixty  years  except  about 
politics.  The  works  of  Franklin,  Jefferson,  and 
other  statesmen  were  more  useful  than  brilliant. 
Sydney  Smith  was  not  far  wrong  in  1820,  when  he 
complained  in  the  EdinbiirgJi  Review  that  the 
Americans  "  have  done  absolutely  nothing  for  the 
sciences,  for  art,  for  literature."  He  went  on  to 
ask,  "In  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  who  reads 
an  American  book  ?  "  His  question  was  answered 
that  same  year  by  the  publication  in  London  of 
Irving's  Rip  Van  Winkle  and  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hol- 
low. Bryant's  first  volume  of  poems  appeared  next 
year,  as  did  Cooper's  popular  novel.  The  Spy  \  and 
the  North  American  Reviezu  had  begun  half  a  dozen 
years  before.  But  even  in  1823,  Channing  could 
not  claim  that  there  really  was  any  national  liter- 
ature, or  much  devotion  of  intellectual  labour  to 
great  subjects.  "  Shall  America,"  he  asked,  "  be 
only  an  echo  of  what  is  thought  and  written  in  the 
aristocracies  beyond  the  ocean  ?  " 

This  was  published  during  the  very  year  in  which 
President  Monroe  declared  that  the  people  of  the 
United  States  would  look  upon  attempts  of  Euro- 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  67 

pean  monarchs  "  to  extend  their  system  to  any  por- 
tion of  this  hemisphere  as  dangerous  to  our  peace 
and  liberty."  Channing  was  much  interested  in 
the  study  of  German  philosophy;  but  he  rested  his 

chief  hopes  of  an  improved  literature,"  on  "  an 
improved  religion."  He  maintained  that  no  man 
could  unfold  his  highest  powers  until  he  had  risen 
above  "  the  prevalent  theology,  which  has  come 
down  to  us  from  the  Dark  Ages,"  and  which  was 
then  *'  arrayed  against  intellect,  leagued  with  op- 
pression, fettering  inquiry,  and  incapable  of  being 
blended  with  the  sacred  dictates  of  reason  and 
conscience. " 

Unitarianism  claimed  for  every  individual,  what 
Protestantism  had  at  most  asked  for  the  congrega- 
tion,— the  right  to  think  for  one's  self.  This  right 
was  won  earlier  in  Europe  than  in  America,  for 
here  the  clergy  kept  much  of  their  original  author- 
ity and  popularity.  Their  influence  over  politics 
collapsed  with  Federalism.  On  all  other  subjects 
they  were  still  listened  to  as  "  stewards  of  the  mys- 
teries of  God,"  who  had  been  taught  all  things  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  were  under  a  divine  call  to 
preach  the  truth  necessary  for  salvation.  The 
clergyman  was  supposed  to  have  acquired  by  his 
ordination  a  peculiar  knowledge  of  all  the  rights  and 
duties  of  human  life.  No  one  else,  however  wise 
and  philanthropic,  could  speak  with  such  authority 
about  what  books  might  be  read  and  what  amuse- 
ments should  be  shunned.  Scientific  habits  of 
thought,  free  inquiry  about  religion,  and  scholarly 
study  of  the  Bible  were  put  under  the  same  ban 
with    dancing,    card-playing,    reading    novels,    and 


68        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

travelling  on  Sunday.  The  pulpit  blocked  the  path 
of  intellectual  progress.  Its  influence  on  literature 
was  wholly  changed  by  the  Unitarian  controversy, 
which  was  at  its  height  in  1820.  Still  more  benefi- 
cial controversies  followed. 

The  trinitarian  clergymen  tried  to  retain  their 
imperilled  supremacy  by  getting  up  revivals.  One 
of  these,  in  the  summer  of  1828,  was  carried  so  far 
at  Cincinnati  that  many  a  woman  lost  her  reason  or 
her  life.  These  excesses  confirmed  the  anti-clerical 
suspicions  of  Frances  Wright,  who  had  come  over 
from  England  to  study  the  negro  character,  and  had 
failed,  after  much  labour  and  expense,  to  find  the 
slaves  she  bought  for  the  purpose  capable  of  work- 
ing out  their  freedom.  She  had  made  up  her  mind 
that  slavery  is  only  one  of  many  evils  caused  by 
ignorance  of  the  duties  of  man  to  man,  that  these 
duties  needed  to  be  studied  scientifically,  and  that 
scientific  study,  especially  among  women,  was  dan- 
gerously impeded  by  the  pulpit. 

That  autumn  she  delivered  the  first  course  of 
public  lectures  ever  given  by  a  woman  in  America. 
Anne  Hutchinson  and  other  women  had  preached  ; 
but  she  was  the  first  lecturer.  The  men  and  women 
of  Cincinnati  crowded  to  hear  the  tall,  majestic 
woman,  who  stood  in  the  court-house,  plainly 
dressed  in  white.  Her  style  was  ladylike  through- 
out ;  but  she  complained  of  the  many  millions 
wasted  on  mere  teachers  of  opinions,  whose  occupa- 
tion was  to  set  people  by  the  ears,  and  whose  influ- 
ence was  stifling  the  breath  of  science.  "  Listen," 
she  said,  "  to  the  denunciations  of  fanaticism  against 
pleasures  the  most  innocent,  recreations  the  most 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  69 

necessary  to  bodily  health."  "  See  it  make  of  the 
people's  day  of  leisure  a  day  of  penance."  Her 
main  theme  was  the  necessity  of  establishing  schools 
to  teach  children  trades,  and  also  halls  of  science 
with  museums  and  public  libraries. 

This  course  was  repeated  in  Baltimore,  Philadel- 
phia, New  York,  Boston,  and  other  cities.  Her 
audiences  were  always  large,  but  she  charged  no 
admission  fee.  What  were  called  "  Fanny  Wright 
societies  "  were  formed  in  many  places.  A  Baptist 
church  in  New  York  City  was  turned  into  a  Hall  of 
Science,  which  remained  open  for  three  years,  be- 
ginning with  the  last  Sunday  of  April,  1829.  It 
contained  a  hall  for  scientific  lectures  and  theologi- 
cal discussions,  a  free  dispensary,  a  gymnasium,  and 
a  bookstore.  Here  was  published  The  Free  En- 
quirer, the  only  paper  in  America  which  permitted 
the  infallibility  of  Christianity  to  be  called  in  ques- 
tion. The  principal  editor,  Robert  Dale  Owen,  son 
of  the  famous  Socialist,  claimed  to  have  twenty 
thousand  adherents  in  that  city,  and  a  controlling 
influence  in  Buffalo.  Celebrations  of  Paine's  birth- 
day were  now  frequent.  It  was  fortunate  for  the 
clergy  that  controversies  about  religion  soon  lost 
their  interest  in  the  fierce  struggle  about  politics. 

III.  The  fame  won  by  Jackson  as  a  conqueror  of 
British  invaders  in  181 5,  blinded  Americans  to  a  fact 
which  had  been  made  manifest  by  both  Napoleon 
and  Wellington,  as  it  is  said  to  have  been  still  more 
recently  by  Grant.  The  habit  of  commanding  an 
army  has  a  tendency  to  create  scorn  of  public 
opinion,  and  also  of  those  restrictions  on  arbitrary 


70  Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century- 
authority  which  are  necessary  for  popular  govern- 
ment, as  well  as  for  individual  liberty.  Jackson 
had  the  additional  defect  of  holding  slaves;  and  it 
is  probable  that  if  he  had  never  done  so,  nor  even 
had  soldiers  under  his  orders,  he  would  have  been 
sadly  indifferent  to  the  rights  of  his  fellow-citizens 
and  to  the  principles  of  free  government.  He  was 
elected  in  1828,  and  proved  enough  of  a  Democrat 
to  renounce  the  policy,  which  had  recently  become 
popular,  of  making  local  improvements  at  the 
national  expense ;  but  he  was  the  first  President 
who  dismissed  experienced  officials,  in  order  to  ap- 
point his  own  partisans  without  inquiry  as  to  their 
capacity  to  serve  the  nation.  He  was  especially 
arbitrary  about  a  problem  not  yet  fully  solved, 
namely,  what  the  Government  should  do  with  the 
banks.  The  public  money  was  then  deposited  in  a 
National  Bank  whose  constitutionality  was  admitted 
by  the  Supreme  Court.  Its  stock  was  at  a  premium 
and  its  notes  at  par  in  1829;  and  it  had  five  hundred 
officials  in  various  States.  Jackson  thought  it  had 
opposed  his  election ;  and  he  suggested  that  the 
public  money  should  be  removed  to  the  custody  of 
a  branch  of  the  Treasury,  to  be  established  for  that 
purpose.  The  plan  has  since  been  adopted;  but 
his  friends  were  too  much  interested  in  rival  banks, 
and  his  opponents  thought  only  of  preventing  his 
re-election  in  1832,  They  could  not,  however,  pre- 
vent his  obtaining  a  great  majority  as  "  the  poor 
man's  champion." 

The  Bank  had  spent  vast  sums  in  publishing  cam- 
paign documents,  and  even  in  bribery;  and  Jackson 
suspected  that  it  would  try  to  buy  a  new  charter. 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  71 

He  decided,  with  no  sanction  from  Congress,  and 
against  the  advice  of  his  own  Cabinet,  that  the  pub- 
He  money  already  in  the  Bank  should  be  drawn  out 
as  fast  as  it  could  be  spent,  and  that  no  more  should 
be  deposited  there.  He  removed  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  for  refusing  to  carry  out  this  plan ; 
and  obliged  his  successor  to  set  about  it  before  he 
was  confirmed  by  the  Senate.  To  all  remonstrances 
he  replied,  "  I  take  the  responsibility  "  ;  and  he  met 
the  vote  of  the  Senators,  that  he  was  assuming  an 
authority  not  conferred  by  the  Constitution,  by 
boasting  that  he  was  "  the  direct  representative  of 
the  American  people."  Webster  replied  that  this 
would  reduce  the  government  to  an  elective  mon- 
archy ;  and  the  opponents  to  what  they  called  Jack- 
son's Toryism  agreed  to  call  themselves  Whigs. 
Their  leader  was  Henry  Clay;  and  they  believed, 
like  the  Federalists,  in  centralisation,  internal  im- 
provements, and  protective  tariffs, 

Jackson  was  sustained  by  the  Democrats;  but 
their  quarrel  with  the  Whigs  prevented  Congress 
from  providing  any  safe  place  for  the  public  money. 
It  was  loaned  to  some  of  the  State  banks;  and  all 
these  institutions  were  encouraged  to  increase  their 
liabilities  enormously.  Speculation  was  active  and 
prices  high.  That  of  wheat  in  particular  rose  so 
much  after  the  bad  harvest  of  1836  that  there  was  a 
bread  riot  in  New  York  City.  Scarcely  had  Jackson 
closed  his  eight  years  of  service,  in  1837,  when  the 
failure  of  a  business  firm  in  New  Orleans  brought  on 
so  many  others  that  all  the  banks  suspended  pay- 
ment. Prices  of  merchandise  fell  so  suddenly  as  to 
make  the  dealers  bankrupt;    many  thousand  mea 


72       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

were  thrown  out  of  employment;  and  so  much  pub- 
lic money  was  lost  that  there  was  a  deficit  in  the 
Treasury,  where  there  had  been  a  surplus. 

IV.  These  bad  results  of  Jackson's  administration 
strengthened  the  Whigs.  They  had  not  ventured 
to  make  protectionism  the  main  issue  in  1832;  and 
Clay  had  acknowledged  that  all  the  leading  news- 
papers and  magazines  were  against  it  in  1824.  Its 
adoption  that  year  was  by  close  votes,  and  in  spite 
of  Webster's  insisting  that  American  manufactures 
were  growing  rapidly  without  any  unnatural  restric- 
tions on  commerce.  The  duties  were  raised  in  1828 
to  nearly  five  times  their  average  height  in  1789; 
and  there  was  so  much  discontent  at  the  South, 
that  some  slight  reductions  had  to  be  made  in  the 
summer  of  1832;  but  the  protectionist  purpose  was 
still  predominant.  If  the  opponents  of  all  taxation 
except  for  revenue  had  done  nothing  more  than  ap- 
peal to  the  people  that  autumn,  they  would  have  had 
Congress  with  them  ;  Jackson  was  already  on  their 
side;  and  the  question  might  have  been  decided  on 
its  merits  after  full  discussion.  The  threat  of  South 
Carolina  to  secede  caused  the  reduction,  which  was 
actually  made  in  1833,  to  appear  too  much  like  a 
concession  made  merely  to  avoid  civil  war;  and  this 
second  attempt  to  preserve  the  Union  by  a  com- 
promise was  a  premium  upon  disloyalty.  This 
bargain,  like  that  of  1820,  was  arranged  by  Henry 
Clay;  and  one  condition  was  that  the  rates  should 
fall  gradually  to  a  maximum  of  twenty  per  cent. 
Before  that  process  was  completed,  the  Treasury 
was  exhausted  by  bad  management;  and  additional 


I 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  73 

revenue  had  to  be  obtained  by  raising  the  tariff  in 
1842.  The  Whigs  were  then  in  power;  but  they 
were  defeated  in  the  presidential  election  of  1844, 
when  the  main  issue  was  protectionism.  The  tariff 
was  reduced  in  1846  by  a  much  larger  majority  than 
that  of  1842  in  the  House  of  Representatives;  and 
the  results  were  so  satisfactory  that  a  further  reduc- 
tion to  an  average  of  twenty  per  cent,  was  made  in 
1857,  with  the  general  approval  of  members  of  both 
parties.  The  revenue  needed  for  war  had  to  be 
procured  by  increase  of  taxation  in  1861  ;  but  the 
country  had  then  had  for  twenty-eight  years  an 
almost  uninterrupted  succession  of  low  tariffs. 

The  universal  prosperity  in  America  between  1833 
and  1842  is  mentioned  by  a  French  traveller,  Chev- 
alier, by  a  German  philanthropist,  Dr.  Julius,  by 
Miss  Martineau,  Lyell,  and  Dickens.  The  novelist 
was  especially  struck  by  the  healthy  faces  and  neat 
dresses  of  the  factory  girls  at  Lowell,  where  they 
began  to  publish  a  magazine  in  1840.  Lyell  said 
that  the  operatives  in  that  city  looked  like  "  a  set 
of  ladies  and  gentlemen  playing  at  factory  for  their 
own  amusement."  Our  country  had  seven  times  as 
many  miles  of  railroads  in  1842  as  in  1833;  our 
factories  made  more  than  nine  times  as  many  dol- 
lars* worth  of  goods  in  i860  as  in  1830;  and  they 
sold  more  than  three  times  as  many  abroad  as  in 
1846.  Twice  as  much  capital  was  invested  in  man- 
ufacturing in  i860  as  in  1850;  the  average  wages  of 
the  operatives  increased  sixteen  per  cent,  during 
these  ten  years;  America  became  famous  for  inven- 
tions; her  farms  doubled  in  value,  as  did  both  her 
imports  and  her  exports;  and  the  tonnage  of  her 


74       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

vessels  increased  greatly.      Such  are  the  blessings  of 
liberty  in  commerce. 

Especially  gratifying  is  the  growth  of  respect 
for  the  right  of  free  speech.  The  complaints  by 
Dickens,  Chevalier,  and  Miss  Martineau  of  the  de- 
spotism of  the  majority  were  corroborated  by  Toc- 
queville,  who  travelled  here  in  183 1  and  published 
in  1835  a  very  valuable  statement  of  the  results  and 
tendencies  of  democracy.  The  destruction  that 
year  of  a  Catholic  convent  near  Boston  by  a  mob  is 
especially  significant,  because  the  anniversary  was 
celebrated  next  year  as  a  public  holiday.  The 
worst  sufferers  under  persecution  at  that  time  were 
the  philanthropists. 

V.  In  order  to  do  justice  to  all  parties  in  this  con- 
troversy we  should  take  especial  notice  of  the  amount 
of  opposition  to  slavery  about  1825  in  what  were 
afterwards  called  the  Border  States.  Here  all  manual 
labour  could  have  been  done  by  whites;  and  much 
of  it  was  actually,  especially  in  Kentucky.  There 
slaves  never  formed  a  quarter  of  the  population; 
and  in  Maryland  they  sank  steadily  from  one-fourth 
in  1820  to  one-eighth  in  i860.  Of  masters  over 
twenty  or  more  bondmen  in  1856,  there  were  only 
256  in  Kentucky  and  735  in  Maryland.  It  was 
these  large  holders  who  monopolised  the  profits,  as 
they  did  the  public  offices.  White  men  with  few 
or  no  slaves  had  scarcely  any  political  power;  and 
their  chance  to  make  money,  live  comfortably,  and 
educate  their  children,  was  much  less  than  if  all 
labour  had  become  free.  Such  a  change  would  have 
made  manufacturing  prosper  in  both  Kentucky  and 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  75 

Maryland  ;  but  all  industries  languished  except  that 
of  breeding  slaves  for  the  South.  The  few  were  rich 
at  the  expense  of  4;he  many.  Only  time  was  needed 
in  these  and  other  States  to  make  the  majority  intel- 
ligent enough  to  vote  the  guilty  aristocrats  down. 

Two  thousand  citizens  of  Baltimore  petitioned 
against  admitting  Missouri  as  a  slave  State  in  1820; 
and  several  avowed  abolitionists  ran  for  the  Legis- 
lature shortly  before  1S30.  At  this  time  there  were 
annual  anti-slavery  conventions  in  Baltimore,  with 
prominent  Whigs  among  the  officers,  and  nearly 
two  hundred  affiliated  societies  in  the  Border  States. 
There  were  fifty  in  North  Carolina,  where  two  thou- 
sand slaves  had  been  freed  in  1825,  and  three-fifths 
of  the  whites  were  reported  as  favourable  to  eman- 
cipation. Henry  Clay  was  openly  so  in  1827;  and 
the  Kentucky  Colonisation  Society  voted  in  1830 
that  the  disposition  towards  voluntary  emancipation 
was  strong  enough  to  make  legislation  unnecessary. 
The  abolition  of  slavery  as  "  the  greatest  curse  that 
God  in  his  wrath  ever  inflicted  upon  a  people  "  was 
demanded  by  a  dozen  members  of  the  Virginia 
Legislature,  as  well  as  by  the  RicJunond  Inquirer,  in 
1832;  and  similar  efforts  were  made  shortly  before 
1850  in  Kentucky,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Western 
Virginia,  Western  North  Carolina,  Eastern  Tennes- 
see, and  Missouri. 

From  18 1 2  to  1845  the  Senate  was  equally  divided 
between  free  and  slave  States;  and  any  transfer, 
even  of  Delaware,  from  one  side  to  the  other  would 
have  enabled  the  North  to  control  the  upper  House 
as  well  as  the  lower.  The  plain  duty  of  a  Northern 
philanthropist  was  to  co-operate  with  the  Southern 


76       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

emancipationists  and  accept  patiently  their  opinion 
that  aboHtion  had  better  take  place  gradually,  as  it 
had  done  in  New  York,  and,  what  was  much  more 
important,  that  the  owner  should  have  compensa- 
tion. This  had  been  urged  by  Wilberforce  in  1823, 
as  justice  to  the  planters  in  the  West  Indies;  the 
legislatures  of  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  Jersey 
recommended,  shortly  before  1830,  that  the  nation 
should  buy  and  free  the  slaves ;  and  compensation 
was  actually  given  by  Congress  to  loyal  owners  of 
the  three  thousand  slaves  in  the  District  of  Colum- 
bia emancipated  in  1862.  Who  can  tell  the  evils 
which  we  should  have  escaped,  if  slavery  could  have 
continued  after  1830  to  be  abolished  gradually  by 
State  after  State,  with  pecuniary  aid  from  Congress 
or  the  North  ? 

This  was  the  hope  of  Benjamin  Lundy,  who  passed 
much  of  his  life  in  the  South,  though  he  was  born 
in  New  Jersey.  He  had  advocated  gradual  emanci- 
pation in  nearly  every  State,  visiting  even  Texas  and 
Missouri,  organising  anti-slavery  societies,  and  tak- 
ing subscriptions  to  his  Gciihis  of  Universal  Emanci- 
pation, which  was  founded  in  Tennessee  in  1821,  but 
afterwards  was  issued  weekly  at  Baltimore.  He 
published  the  names  of  nine  postmasters  among  his 
agents,  and  copied  friendly  articles  from  more  than 
forty  newspapers.  One  of  his  chief  objects  was  to 
prevent  that  great  extension  of  slavery,  the  annexa- 
tion of  Texas. 

VI.  The  election  of  the  first  pro-slavery  President, 
Jackson,  in  1828,  discouraged  the  abolitionists;  and 
Lundy  w^as  obliged  to  suspend  his  paper  for  lack  of 


Democrats  and  Garrisonlans  I'j 

subscribers  early  next  year.  When  he  resumed  it 
in  September,  he  took  an  assistant  editor,  who  had 
declared  on  the  pi'evious  Fourth  of  July,  in  a  fash- 
ionable Boston  church:  "  I  acknowledge  that  im- 
mediate and  complete  emancipation  is  not  desirable. 
No  rational  man  cherishes  so  wild  a  vision."  Be- 
fore Garrison  set  foot  on  slave  soil,  it  occurred  to 
him  that  every  slave  had  a  right  to  instant  freedom, 
and  also  that  no  master  had  any  right  to  compensa- 
tion. These  two  ideas  he  advocated  at  once,  and 
ever  after,  as  obstinately  as  George  the  Third  in- 
sisted on  the  right  to  tax  America.  Garrison,  of 
course,  was  a  zealous  philanthropist;  and  he  was 
as  conscientious  as  Paul  was  in  persecuting  the 
Christians.  But  he  seems  to  have  been  more  anxious 
to  free  his  own  conscience  than  to  free  the  slaves. 
Immediate  emancipation  had  been  advocated  in 
Lundy's  paper  at  much  length,  and  even  as  early 
as  1825,  but  so  mildly  as  to  call  out  little  opposi- 
tion. Insisting  on  no  compensation  Avas  much 
more  irritating;  and  Garrison's  writings  show  that 
his  mind  was  apt  to  free  itself  in  bitter  words, 
even  against  such  men  as  Whittier,  Channing, 
Longfellow,  Douglass,  and  Sumner.  He  had  been 
but  three  months  in  Baltimore  when  he  published  a 
censure  by  name  of  the  owner  and  captain  of  one  of 
the  many  vessels  which  were  permitted  by  law  to 
carry  slaves  South,  as  "  highway  robbers  and  mur- 
derers," who  "  should  be  sentenced  to  solitary  con- 
finement for  life,"  and  who  deserved  "  to  occupy 
the  lowest  depths  of  perdition."  He  was  found 
guilty  of  libel,  and  imprisoned  for  seven  weeks  be- 
cause he  could  not  pay  a  moderate  fine. 


78       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

The  money  was  given  by  a  generous  New  Yorker; 
but  Garrison's  work  in  the  South  was  over,  and 
Lundy's  was  of  httle  value  thenceforth.  The  man 
who  brought  the  hbel  suit  was  an  influential  citizen 
of  Massachusetts;  and  Boston  pulpits  were  shut 
against  Garrison  on  his  return.  He  could  not  pay 
for  a  hall;  but  one  was  given  him  without  cost  by 
the  anti-clerical  society,  whose  leader,  Abner  Knee- 
land,  was  imprisoned  thirty  days  in  1834  for  a  brief 
expression  of  atheism  which  would  not  now  be  con- 
sidered blasphemous. 

Two  weeklies,  which  were  unpopular  from  the 
first,  began  to  be  published  at  Boston  early  in  1831. 
K.nee\a.nd' s  Im/esli^a^or  was  pledged  "  to  contend 
for  the  abolition  of  slavery  "  and  "  advocate  the 
rights  of  women. ' '  It  was  friendly  to  labour  reform 
as  well  as  to  scientific  education,  and  opposed 
capital  punishment,  imprisonment  for  debt,  and 
legislation  about  religion;  but  its  predominant  tone 
has  been  skeptical  to  the  present  day.  Garrison  was 
too  orthodox  in  1831  to  favour  the  emancipation  of 
women;  he  was  in  sympathy  with  other  reforms; 
but  his  chief  theme  was  the  "  pernicious  doctrine  of 
gradual  abolition."  The  next  mistake  of  his  Lil?- 
erator  was  the  prominence  given  to  negro  insur- 
rection and  other  crimes  against  whites.  The 
Southerners  were  naturally  afraid  to  have  such  sub- 
jects mentioned,  even  in  condemnation;  and  guilty 
consciences  made  slave-holders  think  the  danger 
much  greater  than  it  was.  The  first  number  of  the 
Liberator  contained  Garrison's  verses  about  the 
horrors  of  the  revolt  which  might  bring  emancipa- 
tion.     He  announced  at  the  same  time  that  he  was 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  79 

going  to  review  a  recent  pamphlet  which  he  described 
thus:  "A  better  promoter  of  insurrection  was  never 
sent  forth  to  an  oppressed  people."  His  contribut- 
ors spoke  often  of  the  right  of  slaves  to  resist,  and 
asked,  "  In  God's  name,  why  should  they  not  cut 
their  masters'  throats  ?  "  Many  women  and  child- 
ren were  massacred  by  rebel  slaves  in  Virginia  that 
autumn;  and  Garrison  promptly  declared  that  the 
assassins  "  deserve  no  more  blame  than  our  fathers 
did  for  slaughtering  the  British,"  and  that  "  When 
the  contest  shall  have  again  begun,  it  must  again 
be  a  war  of  extermination."  Similar  language  was 
often  used  in  the  Liberator  afterwards. 

Garrison  was  too  firm  a  non-resistant  to  go  further 
than  this;  but  the  majority  of  Northerners  would 
have  agreed  with  the  Reverend  Doctor  Wayland, 
President  of  Brown  University,  who  declared  slavery 

very  wicked,"  but  declined  to  have  the  Liberator 
sent  him,  and  wrote  to  J\Ir.  Garrison  that  its  tend- 
ency was  to  incite  the  slaves  to  rebellion.  Of  course 
this  was  not  the  editor's  intention  ;  but  history  deals 
mainly  with  causes  and  results. 

The  consequences  were  especially  bad  at  the 
South.  Calhoun  and  other  Democrats  were  striv- 
ing to  unite  all  her  people  in  resistance  to  emanci- 
pation, as  well  as  to  protectionism.  They  appealed 
to  the  insurrection  in  1831,  and  to  the  treatment  of 
this  subject  in  the  Liberator,  as  proofs  that  abolition- 
ism was  incendiary;  and  the  feeling  was  so  intense 
in  Georgia,  that  the  Governor  was  authorised  by  the 
Legislature,  before  the  end  of  1831,  to  offer  five 
thousand  dollars  for  the  head  of  the  editor  or  of  any 
of  his  agents  in  that  State.      Southerners  were  gen- 


8o        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

erally  provoked  at  such  comparisons  of  slave-holders 
to  thieves  as  were  often  made  in  the  Liberator  and 
were  incorporated  into  the  formal  declaration  made 
by  Garrison  and  the  other  founders  of  the  New 
England  Anti-Slavery  Society  at  Boston  early  in 
1832.  Planters  friendly  to  emancipation  were  dis- 
couraged by  Garrison's  insisting  that  they  ought 
not  to  have  compensation,  an  opinion  which  was 
adopted  by  the  American  Anti-Slavery  Society  at 
its  organisation  at  Philadelphia  in  1833.  Such  pro- 
tests on  moral  grounds  were  of  great  use  to  poli- 
ticians who  opposed  any  grant  of  money  for 
emancipation,  because  they  wished  to  preserve 
slavery.  The  national  Constitution  provided  that 
emancipation  should  not  take  place  in  any  State 
which  did  not  give  its  consent;  and  this  was  much 
less  attainable  in  1835  than  it  had  been  ten  years 
earlier. 

So  fierce  was  the  hatred  of  anti-slavery  periodi- 
cals, that  many  pounds  of  them  were  taken  from 
the  Charleston  post-office  and  burned  by  the  lead- 
ing citizens  in  July,  1835;  and  this  action  was 
praised  by  a  public  meeting,  which  was  attended  by 
all  the  clergy.  The  papers  were  printed  in  New 
York,  and  do  not  seem  to  have  been  destroyed  on 
account  of  their  own  mistakes,  but  of  those  made 
by  the  Liberator.  Southern  postmasters  refused 
after  this  to  deliver  any  anti-slavery  matter;  and 
their  conduct  was  approved  by  the  Postmaster- 
General,  as  well  as  by  the  President.  The  legisla- 
tures of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  demanded,  in 
the  session  of  1835  ^"'^  1836,  that  all  such  publica- 
tions be  suppressed  legally  by  the  Northern  States. 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  8i 

South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Alabama  took  the 
same  course ;  and  it  was  agreed  everywhere  that 
abolitionists  were  to  be  lynched.  Loyalty  to 
slavery  was  required  of  all  preachers  and  editors; 
no  other  qualification  for  every  office,  in  the  service 
either  of  the  nation  or  of  the  State,  was  exacted  so 
strictly ;  other  controversies  lost  interest ;  and  men 
who  would  have  gained  greatly  from  the  introduc- 
tion of  free  labour  helped  the  slave-holders  silence 
those  intelligent  Southerners  who  knew  what  urgent 
need  there  was  in  their  section  of  emancipation  for 
the  general  welfare. 

Garrison,  meantime,  made  both  friends  and  ene- 
mies at  the  North.  He  had  the  support  of  nearly 
four  hundred  anti-slavery  societies  in  1835;  but 
some  of  these  had  been  founded  in  Ohio  by  Lundy 
on  the  principle  of  gradual  emancipation,  and 
others  in  New  York  by  Jay,  whose  main  objects 
were  repeal  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  and  emanci- 
pation in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Agitation  for 
immediate  abolition  without  compensation  was  no- 
where active  at  that  time,  except  in  New  England. 
The  highest  estimate  of  its  partisans  in  1840  was 
only  two  hundred  thousand ;  most  of  them  had 
already  renounced  the  leadership  of  Garrison ;  and 
there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  number  of 
his  thorough  going  followers  ever  reached  one  hun- 
dred thousand. 

Most  of  the  original  abolitionists  were  church 
members;  and  the  agitation  was  never  opposed, 
even  at  first,  by  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  clergy 
at  the  North  as  of  the  people  generally.  Several 
ministers  joined  Garrison  at  once ;  125  enrolled  their 

6 


82        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

names  for  publication  as  abolitionists  in  1833;  and 
two  years  later  he  had  the  open  support  of  the  New 
England  Methoclist  Conference,  the  Maine  Bap- 
tist Convention,  and  the  Detroit  Presbytery,  as 
well  as  of  many  Congregationalists,  and  of  most  of 
the  Quakers,  Unitarians,  and  Free-Will  Baptists. 
Preaching  against  slavery  was  not  common  in  de- 
nominations where  the  pastor  was  more  liable  to  be 
gagged  by  ecclesiastical  superiors. 

One  reason  that  this  authority,  as  well  as  that  of 
public  opinion  in  the  Northern  cities,  was  directed 
against  agitation,  was  the  pressure  of  business  in- 
terests. The  South  sent  most  of  her  products, 
especially  cotton,  to  manufacturers  or  merchants  in 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  New  England.  This 
region  in  return  supplied  her  with  clothes,  tools,  and 
furniture.  Much  of  her  food  came  from  the  Western 
farmers;  and  these  latter  were  so  unable  to  send 
grain  or  cattle  eastward  until  after  1850,  that  the 
best  road  for  most  of  them  to  market  was  the  Mis- 
sissippi. The  slave-holders  were  such  good  custom- 
ers, that  people  along  the  Ohio  River,  as  well  as  in 
Eastern  seaports  and  factory  towns,  were  slow  to  see 
how  badly  the  slaves  were  oppressed. 

Enlightenment  on  this  subject,  as  well  as  about 
capacity  for  free  labour,  was  also  delayed  by  preju- 
dices of  race  and  colour,  while  there  was  much 
honest  ignorance  throughout  the  North.  What  was 
best  understood  about  slavery  was  that  it  was  merely 
a  State  institution,  not  to  be  abolished  or  even  much 
ameliorated  by  the  national  Government.  The  main 
responsibility  rested  accordingly  upon  the  Southern 
States ;  and  the  danger  that  these  might  be  provoked 


Democrats  and  Garrisonlans  83 

to  secede  could  not  be  overlooked.  These  consider- 
ations prevented  the  majority  of  the  Northerners, 
and  especially  the  leading  members  of  every  sect, 
from  opposing  slavery  as  actively  as  they  would 
otherwise  have  been  glad  to  do. 

The  most  active  partisan  of  the  slave-holders  was 
the  politician  who  knew  they  had  votes  in  Congress 
and  in  the  electoral  college  for  all  the  whites  in  the 
South  and  also  for  three-fifths  of  the  coloured  people. 
The  views  of  the  Democratic  party  about  the  tariff, 
the  bank,  and  State  rights  had  made  it  in  1832  vic- 
torious everywhere  south  of  Maryland  and  Ken- 
tucky; and  its  preponderance  in  the  cotton  States, 
as  well  as  in  Virginia,  enabled  it  long  to  resist  the 
growing  disaffection  at  the  North,  The  Whigs  went 
far  enough  in  the  same  course  for  their  own  destruc- 
tion ;  and  the  principle  of  individual  liberty  found 
few  champions. 

VII.  Politicians  and  merchants  worked  together 
in  getting  up  the  series  of  mobs  against  abolitionists, 
which  began  in  1833,  under  the  lead  of  a  Methodist 
bishop  in  New  York,  and  kept  breaking  out  in  that 
city,  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati,  Boston,  and  less  im- 
portant places,  until  they  culminated  in  the  burning 
of  Pennsylvania  Hall  in  1838.  After  that  year, 
they  were  neither  frequent  nor  violent.  The  worst 
crime  of  the  rioters  was  murdering  a  clergyman 
named  Lovejoy  in  1837  ^'^^  trying  to  save  his  print- 
ing-press. Most  of  the  Baptist,  Methodist,  and 
Presbyterian  preachers  and  editors  were  now  doing 
what  they  could  to  suppress  the  agitation ;  but  the 
riots  called  out  no  indignation  like  that  which  had 


84       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

poured  forth  from  all  the  churches  in   1828  against 
Sunday  mails. 

There  was  little  freedom  of  speech  for  unpopular 
opinions  in  America  in  1835,  when  Channing  de- 
clared that  the  mob  against  Garrison  had  made 
abolitionism  "  the  cause  of  Freedom."  There  were 
many  readers,  even  in  the  South,  for  the  little  book 
in  which  he  insisted  that  "  Slavery  ought  to  be  dis- 
cussed." He  protested  against  depriving  the  slave 
of  his  right  to  improve  and  respect  himself,  and 
vindicated  "the  sacredness  of  individual  man." 
He  was  the  first  to  appeal  from  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Law  to  that  "  everlasting  and  immutable  rule  of 
right  revealed  in  conscience."  And  few  other  cler- 
gymen gave  such  help  to  John  Quincy  Adams, 
who  was  then  asserting  the  right  of  petition  and  of 
discussion  in  Congress.  Memorials  with  a  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  signatures  had  been  presented 
against  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  in  favour  of 
emancipation  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  when  it 
was  voted  by  all  the  Southern  Representatives,  as 
well  as  by  the  Northern  Democrats,  in  January, 
1837,  that  all  petitions  relating  to  slavery  "  shall  be 
laid  on  the  table  and  no  action  taken  thereon." 
The  ex-President,  who  was  then  a  Representative 
from  Massachusetts,  protested  indignantly,  as  did 
other  Whigs,  and  they  continued  to  plead  for  the 
constitutional  rights  of  the  North  until  1844,  when 
the  ■  gag-rule  was  abolished.  On  July  4,  1837, 
Adams  told  the  people  that  "  Freedom  of  speech  is 
the  only  safety-valve  which,  under  the  high  pressure 
of  slavery,  can  preserve  your  political  boiler  from 
a  fearful    explosion."     The    number  of  names,  in- 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  85 

eluding  many  repetitions,   signed  in  the  next  two 
years  to  anti-slavery  petitions  was  two  millions. 

Emancipation  in  the  District  of  Columbia  was  out 
of  the  question,  if  only  because  the  South  chose 
half  the  Senate.  The  North  was  strong  enough  in 
the  House  of  Representatives  to  prevent  any  pro- 
slavery  legislation;  and  the  annexation  of  Texas 
was  actually  postponed  until  1845,  i'"'  consequence 
partly  of  the  petitions  and  partly  of  remonstrances 
from  the  legislatures  of  Massachusetts,  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  other  States.  These  bodies 
also  protested  against  the  neglect  of  petitions  in 
Congress.  The  subsidence  of  mobs  after  1838  was 
due  to  a  general  feeling  at  the  North,  not  only  that 
the  rioters  were  too  violent,  but  also  that  the  South 
was  too  dictatorial  in  gagging  Congress,  in  tamper- 
ing with  the  mails,  in  asking  Northern  legislatures  to 
suppress  public  meetings,  and  in  trying  to  annex 
Texas. 

VIII.  On  all  these  points  the  Whigs  were  so 
far  in  advance  of  the  Democrats  in  1840,  as  to  re- 
ceive much  support  from  abolitionists.  These  last, 
however,  were  widely  and  unfortunately  divided 
among  themselves.  Many  of  the  men  still  called 
themselves  Democrats;  for  the  old  party  which  had 
been  founded  by  JefTerson  had  liberal  members,  who 
had  formerly  been  called  "  Fanny  Wright  men," 
and  were  now  known  as  "  Loco  Focos. "  A  few 
abolitionists  took  the  Gospel  aphorisms  about  non- 
resistance  so  blindly  as  to  say  it  would  be  a  sin 
for  them  to  vote.      Garrison  renounced  the  franchise 

for  conscience'  sake  and  the  slave's";  but  it  is 


86  Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century- 
hard  to  see  precisely  what  any  slave  gained  by  his 
friends'  refusing  to  vote  for  Adams,  Sumner,  or 
Lincoln.  The  most  consistent  abolitionists  voted 
regularly,  and  selected  a  candidate  for  his  work  in 
the  cause,  without  regard  to  his  party  record. 

The  Democrats  took  decided  ground  in  the  na- 
tional convention  of  1840  and  afterwards  against 
abolitionism.  Their  nominee,  Van  Buren,  was  then 
at  the  head  of  a  corrupt  administration.  The  Whig 
candidate,  Harrison,  was  in  favour  of  free  speech 
and  honest  government.  He  had  been  chosen  in 
preference  to  Clay,  because  of  the  latter's  attacking 
the  abolitionists.  Another  slave-holder  who  wanted 
to  lynch  them,  had,  however,  been  nominated  by 
acclamation  for  Vice-President  at  the  Whig  conven- 
tion ;  and  the  party  had  no  platform. 

It  is  hard  to  see  what  ought  to  have  been  done 
under  these  circumstances  by  abolitionists.  Some 
who  were  afterwards  known  as  "  Liberty  men  "  set 
up  an  independent  ticket,  headed  by  a  martyr  to  the 
cause.  They  had  quite  as  much  right  to  do  this  as 
Garrison  had  to  refuse  to  vote.  He  had  hitherto 
taken  little  responsibility  for  the  proceedings  of  the 
national  society;  but  when  the  annual  meeting  was 
held  at  New  York  in  May,  1840,  he  brought  on 
more  than  five  hundred  of  his  own  adherents  from 
New  England,  in  order  to  pack  the  convention. 
Thus  he  secured  the  passage  of  a  declaration  that 
the  independent  nominations  were  "  injurious  to  the 
cause  "  and  ought  not  to  be  supported.  Garrison 
has  justly  been  compared  to  Luther,  and  this  was 
like  Luther  at  his  worst. 

Most  of  the  officers   and  members   seceded   and 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  87 

organised  a  rival  society  which  did  good  work  in 
sympathy  not  only  with  the  Liberty  men  but  with 
the  Free  Soilers;  and  these  parties  gained  most  of 
the  new  converts  to  abolitionism.  In  1847  the 
Liberator  published  without  comment  an  estimate 
that  it  did  not  represent  the  views  of  one  active 
abolitionist  in  ten ;  and  a  coloured  clergyman  of 
high  ability,  Dr.  Garnett,  declared  in  185 1  that  the 
proportion  was  less  than  one  per  cent.  Most  of  the 
clergymen  who  were  friendly  to  Garrison  before 
1840  were  thenceforth  against  him.  So  many  pul- 
pits were  suddenly  closed  against  the  agitators,  that 
one  of  them,  named  Foster,  kept  insisting  on  speak- 
ing in  meeting  without  leave  in  various  parts  of  New 
England.  He  was  usually  dragged  out  summarily, 
and  often  to  the  injury  of  his  coat-tails,  though 
never  of  his  temper.  Boston  was  one  of  the  most 
strongly  anti-slavery  cities ;  but  twenty  pastors  out 
of  forty-four  refused  to  asked  the  people  to  pray  for 
a  fugitive  slave  who  was  imprisoned  illegally  in  1842. 
Those  who  complied  had  comparatively  little  influ- 
ence. The  rural  clergy  in  New  England,  New  York, 
Michigan,  and  Northern  Ohio,  had  much  more 
sympathy  with  reform  than  their  brethren  to  the 
southward,  especially  in  large  cities.  Garrison's 
personal  unpopularity  in  the  churches  had  been 
much  increased  by  his  violent  language  against 
them,  and  also  by  his  asserting  the  injustice  of  Sun- 
day laws,  as  well  as  the  right  of  women  to  speak  for 
the  slave.  His  position  on  these  points  will  be  con- 
sidered later. 

IX.   His  worst  mistake  was  the  demand,  which  he 


88  Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century- 
published  in  the  Liberator,  in  May,  1842,  for  "  a 
repeal  of  the  Union  between  Northern  Liberty  and 
Southern  Slavery."  This  he  called  "  essential  "  for 
emancipation.  In  January,  1843,  the  Massachusetts 
Anti-Slavery  Society  passed  the  resolution  which 
was  afterwards  published  regularly  in  the  Liberator 
as  the  Garrisonist  creed.  It  declared  the  Union 
"  a  covenant  with  death  and  an  agreement  with 
hell"  which  "should  be  immediately  annulled." 
This  position  was  held  by  Garrison,  Phillips,  and 
their  adherents  until  1861.  It  was  largely  due,  like 
their  refusal  to  vote,  to  indignation  at  the  support 
given  to  slavery  by  the  national  Constitution,  the 
Fugitive  Slave  Act,  and  some  recent  legislation  at 
Washington.  Garrison  was  also  confident,  as  he 
said  at  a  Disunion  convention  in  1B57,  that  if  the 
South  were  to  secede,  she  would  not  "  be  able  to 
hold  a  single  slave  one  hour  after  the  deed  is  done." 
Phillips,  too,  declared  that  "  All  the  slave  asks  of 
us  is  to  stand  out  of  his  way."  "  Let  no  cement  of 
the  Union  bind  the  slave,  and  he  will  right  himself." 
It  is  true  that  secession  brought  on  emancipation ; 
but  it  would  not  have  done  so  if  Phillips  and  Garri- 
son had  succeeded  in  quenching  love  of  the  Union 
in  the  North.  That  patriotic' feeling  burst  out  in  a 
fierce  flame ;  and  it  was  the  restoration  of  the  Union 
which  abolished  slavery.  Another  important  fact  is 
that  the  chief  guilt  of  slavery  rested  on  the  South. 
The  national  Government  was  only  an  accessory  at 
worst.  No  Northerner  was  responsible  for  any 
clause  in  the  Constitution  which  he  had  not  sanc- 
tioned, or  for  any  action  of  Congress  which  he  had 
done  his  best  to  prevent. 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  89 

The  best  work  against  slavery  which  could  be 
done  in  1843  ^^^  i844  "^^'^s  to  defeat  a  new  attempt 
to  annex  Texas.  This  scheme  was  avowedly  for 
the  extension  of  slavery  over  a  great  region  where 
it  had  been  prohibited  by  Mexico.  There  u-ould 
probably  be  war  with  that  country';  and  success 
would  increase  the  power  of  the  slave-holders  in  the 
Senate.  One  half  of  its  members  were  from  the 
slave  States  in  1844;  but  annexation  was  rejected  in 
June  by  a  vote  of  two  to  one;  and  the  House  of 
Representatives  was  plainly  on  the  same  side, 
though  otherwise  controlled  by  the  Democrats. 

Public  warning  of  the  danger  to  liberty  had  been 
given  by  Adams  and  other  Whigs  in  Congress  early 
in  1843;  but  little  heed  was  taken  either  by  the 
clergy  or  by  the  Garrisonists.  Both  were  too  busy 
with  their  own  plans.  Channing  died  in  1842;  and 
Parker  went  to  Europe  in  September,  1843.  It  was 
not  until  two  months  later  that  the  Liberator  found 
room  for  Texas.  Garrison  never  spoke  against  an- 
nexation until  too  late ;  and  it  was  scarcely  men- 
tioned in  the  May  meetings  of  1843  ^t  New  York 
and  Boston,  in  the  one  hundred  anti-slavery  conven- 
tions which  were  held  that  summer  in  Western  New 
York,  Ohio,  and  Indiana,  with  the  powerful  aid  of 
Frederick  Douglass,  or  in  the  one  hundred  conven- 
tions in  Massachusetts  early  in  1844.  At  the 
May  meeting  in  New  York,  Foster  said  he  should 
rejoice  to  see  Texas  annexed ;  and  Phillips  exulted 
in  the  prospect  that  this  would  provoke  the  North 
to  trample  on  the  Constitution.  Annexation  had 
been  opposed  by  three  candidates  for  the  presid- 
ency :    Birney,    who  had  already  been  selected    by 


90       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

the  "  Liberty  men  "  ;  Van  Buren,  who  was  rejected 
soon  after  on  this  account  by  the  Democrats;  and 
Clay,  who  had  aheady  been  accepted  by  the  Whigs. 
All  three  were  formally  censured,  under  various 
pretexts,  in  company  with  John  Quincy  Adams,  at 
this  and  other  gatherings  of  the  Garrisonians.  Their 
convention  soon  after  in  Boston  voted  ten  to  one 
for  disunion,  and  closed  on  June  ist  with  the  pre- 
sentation to  Garrison  of  a  red  flag  bearing  on  one 
side  the  motto,  "  No  Union  with  Slave-holders," 
and  on  the  other  an  eagle  wrapped  in  the  Ameri- 
can flag  and  trampling  on  a  prostrate  slave.  Two 
months  later,  and  three  before  the  election,  this 
banner  was  carried  through  gaily  decorated  streets 
in  Hingham,  amid  ringing  of  church  bells,  to  a 
meeting  attended  by  several  thousand  disunionists. 
The  Garrisonians  thought  so  much  about  getting 
out  of  the  Union,  that  they  had  nothing  to  say  in 
favour  of  keeping  out  Texas. 

Among  the  few  abolitionists  who  saw  the  duty 
of  the  hour  were  Whittier  and  Lowell.  The  full 
force  of  their  poetry  was  not  much  felt  before 
1850;  but  among  the  stirring  publications  early  in 
1 842  was  a  Rallying-  Cry  for  Nciv  England  against 
the  Annexation  of  Texas,  which  Lowell  sent  forth 
anonymously.  It  was  reprinted  in  Harper  s  Weekly 
for  April  23,  1892,  but  not  in  the  earlier  editions 
of  the  poems.  Among  the  most  striking  lines  are 
these : 
"  Rise  up  New  England,  buckle  on  your  mail  of  proof  sublime, 

Your  stern  old  hate  of  tyranny,  your  deep  contempt  of  crime. 

One  flourish  of  a  pen. 
And  fetters  shall  be  riveted  on  millions  more  of  men. 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  91 

One  drop  of  ink  to  sign  a  name,  and  Slavery  shall  find 
For  all  her  surplus  flesh  and  blood  a  market  to  her  mind. 

Awake  New  England  !     While  you  sleep,  the  foe  advance  their 

lines, 
Already  on  your  stronghold's  wall  their  bloody  banner  shines. 
Awake  and  hurl  them  back  again  in  terror  and  despair  ! 
The  time  has  come  for  earnest  deeds  :  we  've  not  a  man  to  spare." 

If  the  Whigs  had  nominated  Webster  that  May, 
on  a  platform  opposing  both  annexation  and  dis- 
union, they  would  have  gained  more  votes  at  the 
North  than  they  would  have  lost  at  the  South.  They 
might  possibly  have  carried  that  election ;  and  their 
strength  in  the  Border  States  would  have  enabled 
them,  sooner  or  later,  to  check  the  extension  of 
slavery  without  bringing  on  civil  war.  Their  plat- 
form was  silent  about  Texas,  as  well  as  about  the 
Union;  their  chief  candidate.  Clay,  had  already 
made  compromises  in  the  interest  of  the  South 
in  1820  and  1833;  he  did  so  again  in  1850 ;  and 
he   admitted,   soon   after   the    convention,   that    he 

should  be  glad  to  see  "  Texas  annexed,  if  it 
could  be  done  without  war.  This  failure  of  the 
Whigs  to  oppose  the  extension  of  slavery,  together 
with  their  having  made  the  tariff  highly  protective 
in  1842,  cost  them  so  many  votes  in  New  York  and 
Michigan  that  they  lost  the  election. 

Negligence  and  dissension  at  the  North  had  en- 
abled the  South  to  set  aside  Van  Buren  in  favour  of 
Polk  at  the  Democratic  convention.  The  party 
was  pledged  to  annex  Texas;  and  Northern  mem- 
bers were  appeased  by  a  crafty  promise  that  all 
which  was  worth  having  in  British  America,  west  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  should  be  acquired  also.    The 


92        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

declaration  in  the  platform  of  1840,  that  the  govern- 
ment ought  not  "  to  foster  one  branch  of  industry 
to  the  detriment  of  others,"  was  repeated  in  1844, 
as  often  afterwards,  but  it  was  so  cunningly  ex- 
plained away  in  Pennsylvania  that  this  State  voted 
for  the  President  who  signed  the  low-tariff  bill  of 
1846. 

The  election  of  1844  strengthened  the  influence  of 
the  South.  Texas  was  soon  annexed  by  the  same 
Congress  which  had  refused  to  do  so  previously,  and 
was  admitted  like  Florida,  as  a  slave  State,  in  spite 
of  remonstrances  made  by  the  legislatures  of  Massa- 
chusetts and  Vermont,  as  well  as  by  two-thirds  of 
the  Unitarian  ministers. 

In  March,  1846,  Polk's  army  invaded  Mexico; 
her  soldiers  resisted ;  the  Democrats  in  Congress 
voted  that  she  had  begun  the  war,  which  lasted  for 
the  next  eighteen  months ;  and  the  Whigs  assented 
reluctantly.  Most  of  the  volunteers  were  Southern- 
ers, and  there  was  much  opposition  at  the  North  to 
warfare  for  the  extension  of  slavery.  The  indigna- 
tion was  increased  by  the  publication  of  Whittier's 
pathetic  poem.  The  Angels  of  Biiena  Vista,  as  well 
as  of  that  series  of  powerful  satires,  Lowell's  ^z^^'Zf 
Papers.  The  greatest  achievement  of  literary  genius 
thus  far  in  America  was  the  creation  of  Birdofre- 
dom  Sawin ;  and  no  book  except  Mrs.  Stowe's 
famous  novel  did  so  much  for  emancipation. 

A  foremost  place  among  abolitionists  was  taken 
by  Parker  in  1845,  when  he  began  to  preach  in 
Boston.  His  first  sermon  against  the  war  with 
Mexico  was  delivered  the  same  month  as  the  public- 
ation of  the  first  of  the  Bigloiv  Papers,  June,  1846. 


Democrats  and  Garrisonians  93 

Early  in  1847  he  spoke  with  such  severity,  at  an  in- 
dignation meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall,  that  his  life  was 
threatened  by  drunken  volunteers.  Other  preachers 
that  year  in  Massachusetts  followed  his  example  so 
generally  as  to  win  praise  from  the  Garrisonians,  as 
well  as  from  the  most  patriotic  abolitionists;  and 
great  efTect  was  produced  by  his  Letter  to  the  People, 
which  showed,  early  in  1848,  that  slavery  was  ruining 
the  prosperity,  as  well  as  the  morals,  of  the  South. 
More  about  his  work  may  be  found  in  Chapter  V. 
There  we  shall  see  how  active  the  Transcendentalists 
were  in  carrying  on  the  revolt  begun  by  Channing. 
The  most  important  victory  for  liberty  recorded  in 
this  chapter  was  that  of  1844  over  the  protectionists. 
The  defeat  of  the  Garrisonians  was  due  largely  to 
their  mistakes ;  and  there  was  urgent  need  of  a  new 
anti-slavery  movement  on  broader  ground. 


CHAPTER  IV 

EMANCIPATION 

THE  revolutionary  movements  of  1848  did  much 
to  encourage  love  of  liberty  in  America,  where 
the  anti-slavery  agitation  was  now  becoming  pro- 
minent in  poHtics.  The  indignation  against  the  Mexi- 
can war  increased  as  it  was  found  that  nothing  would 
be  done  to  keep  the  promise  of  18/^4,  that  Great 
Britain  should  be  excluded  from  the  Pacific.  The 
purpose  of  the  South,  to  enlarge  the  area  of  slavery 
but  not  that  of  freedom,  was  so  plain  that  the 
northern  Democrats  proposed  the  Wilmot  Proviso, 
by  which  slavery  would  have  been  forbidden  in  all 
territory  acquired  from  Mexico;  and  they  actually 
carried  it  through  the  House  of  Representatives, 
with  the  help  of  the  Whigs,  in  1846.  Similar  action 
was  taken  by  the  legislatures  of  New  York,  Ohio, 
Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  and  seven  other  States. 
The  Senate  was  so  unwilling  to  have  slavery  pro- 
hibited anywhere  as  to  oppose,  merely  on  this  ac- 
count, a  bill  for  giving  a  territorial  government  to 
Oregon. 

I.   Many  of  the  New  York  delegates  to  the  na- 
tional Democratic  convention  in  1848  came  pledged 

94 


Emancipation  95 

to  "  uncompromising  hostility  to  the  extension  of 
slavery,"  and  were  so  badly  treated  that  they  with- 
drew. Cass  was  nominated  as  a  friend  to  the  South  ; 
the  Mexican  war  was  declared  "  just  and  neces- 
sary ";  and  abolitionism  was  denounced,  as  it  had 
been  in  1840  and  1844.  Van  Buren  was  nominated 
soon  after  by  the  anti-slavery  Democrats.  A  similar 
movement  had  already  been  made  by  Sumner,  Wil- 
son, and  other  men  who  were  known  as  "  conscience 
Whigs,"  and  who  had  some  support  from  Clay  and 
Webster.  Both  these  candidates  for  the  presidency 
were  set  aside  in  favour  of  a  slave-holder,  who 
had  been  very  successful  in  conquering  Mexico,  but 
never  cast  a  vote.  In  fact.  General  Taylor  had 
taken  so  little  interest  in  politics,  that  he  was  sup- 
ported in  the  North  as  a  friend,  and  in  the  South  as 
an  enemy,  to  the  Wilmot  Proviso.  No  opinion  on 
this  or  any  other  question  could  be  extorted  from 
the  majority;  Wilson  declared  in  the  convention 
that  he  should  do  all  he  could  to  defeat  its  nominee ; 
the  conscience  Whigs  made  an  alliance  with  the 
Van  Buren  Democrats;  and  the  new  movement  was 
joined  by  the  "  Liberty  men,"  whose  vote  of  sixty 
thousand  had  decided  the  election  of  1844.  Thus 
was  formed  the  Free  Soil  party,  whose  fundamental 
idea,  like  that  afterwards  held  by  the  Republicans, 
was  preservation  of  the  Union  by  checking  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery. 

Douglass  and  other  Garrisonists  were  present  at 
the  Free  Soil  convention,  where  he  was  invited  to 
speak.  The  new  party  pledged  itself  to  "  Free 
Soil,  Free  Speech,  Free  Labour,  and  Free  Men." 
The  national  Government  was  to  relieve  itself  of 


g6       Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

"  all  responsibility  for  slavery,"  and  begin  by  pro- 
hibiting its  extension.  There  should  be  "  no  more 
slave  States,"  "  no  more  slave  territory,"  and  "  no 
more  compromises  with  slavery."  The  convention 
also  demanded  that  Oregon  should  be  organised  as 
a  territory  with  free  labour  only ;  and  this  was 
granted  at  once  by  President  Polk  and  both  Houses 
of  Congress.  Most  of  the  members  of  the  conven- 
tion were  Transcendental  enough  to  think  that 
wisdom  must  be  spontaneous;  and  their  scorn  of 
political  machinery  left  it  to  be  used  for  making 
Van  Buren  the  candidate.  Lowell,  who  was  then 
at  his  height  of  productiveness,  complained  that, 

"  He  aint  half  anti-slav'ry  'nough"  ; 

but  Whittier  exclaimed,  that  September: 

"  Now  joy  and  thanks  forever  more  ! 

The  dreary  night  has  well-nigh  passed  : 
The  slumbers  of  the  North  are  o'er  : 
The  giant  stands  erect  at  last !  " 

The  anti-slavery  vote  was  nearly  five  times  as 
large  as  in  1844.  Cass  would  have  been  elected  if 
the  Free  Soilers  had  supported  him  in  New  York. 
Their  hostility  gave  that  State,  as  well  as  Vermont 
and  Massachusetts,  to  Taylor,  who  thus  became 
President.  He  also  carried  Georgia  and  seven  other 
Southern  States;  but  the  West  was  solidly  Demo- 
cratic. It  was  not  an  anti-slavery  victory,  but  a  pro- 
slavery  defeat. 

IL  The  first  question  before  the  new  President 
and  Congress  was  about  California.  The  discovery 
of  gold,  before  the  country  was  ceded  by  Mexico, 


I 


Emancipation  97 

had  brought  in  crowds  of  settlers,  but  scarcely  any 
slaves.  Unwillingness  to  have  another  free  State 
prevented  Polk  and  his  Senate  from  allowing  Cali- 
fornia to  have  any  better  government  than  a  military 
one;  and  this  was  deprived  of  all  authority  by  the 
desertion  of  the  soldiers  to  the  diggings.  The  set- 
tlers knew  the  value  of  a  free  government,  and 
made  one  independently.  The  constitution  which 
they  completed  in  October,  1848,  was  so  anti- 
slavery  that  it  was  not  sanctioned  for  nearly  two 
years  by  Congress.  Meantime  there  was  no  legal 
authority  in  California  to  levy  taxes,  or  organise  fire 
departments,  or  arrest  criminals.  Robberies  and 
conflagrations  were  numerous;  the  mushroom  cities 
were  not  graded,  paved,  or  lighted;  the  uncertainty 
of  titles  to  land  caused  fights  in  which  lives  were 
lost ;  and  criminals  became  so  desperate  that  several 
were  lynched  by  a  Vigilance  Committee. 

The  duty  of  admitting  California  as  a  free  State 
was  urged  upon  the  new  Congress  in  December, 
1849,  by  Taylor,  who  promised  to  make  an  unex- 
pectedly good  President.  This  plan  had  become  so 
popular  at  the  North  that  it  was  recommended  by 
the  Democratic  State  conventions  of  Massachusetts 
and  Wisconsin,  as  well  as  by  the  legislature  of  every 
Northern  State,  except  Iowa.  The  House  of  Re- 
presentatives could  easily  have  been  carried  ;  for  the 
Whigs  and  Free  Soilers  constituted  a  majority,  and 
would  have  had  some  help  from  Northern  Demo- 
crats. The  Senate  would  probably  not  have  con- 
sented until  after  another  appeal  to  the  people; 
but  this  might  have  been  made  with  success  at  the 

elections  of  1850. 
7 


98        Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Taylor  had  carried  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Louis- 
iana, Florida,  Georgia,  North  Carolina,  Maryland, 
and  Delaware.  The  last  two  States  had  permitted 
some  Free  Soil  votes  to  be  cast ;  this  was  also  the 
case  in  Virginia ;  and  anti-slavery  meetings  had  been 
held  publicly  in  St.  Louis.  The  pro-slavery  defeat 
in  1848  encouraged  Southerners  who  knew  the  ad- 
vantage of  free  labour  to  agitate  for  emancipation. 
The  convention  held  for  this  purpose  in  Kentucky, 
in  1849,  was  attended  by  delegates  from  twenty- 
four  counties;  and  its  declaration  that  slavery  was 
"  injurious  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Commonwealth," 
was  endorsed  by  Southern  newspapers.  Clay  him- 
self proposed  a  plan  of  gradual  emancipation;  and 
such  a  measure  was  called  for,  according  to  the 
Richmond  Southerner  (quoted  in  Hoist's  Constitu- 
tional History,  vol.  iii.,  p.  433),  by  "  two-thirds  of 
the  people  of  Virginia."  Admissions  that  "  Ken- 
tucky must  be  free,"  that  "  Delaware  and  Maryland 
are  now  in  a  transition,  preparatory  to  becoming 
free  States,"  and  that  "Emancipation  is  inevitable 
in  all  the  farming  States,  where  free  labour  can  be 
advantageously  used,"  were  published  in  1853,  at 
New  Orleans,  in  De  Bow's  Industrial  Resources  of 
the  SoiitJiern  and  Western  States  (vols,  i.,  p.  407; 
ii.,  p.  310;  iii.,  p.  60).  A  book  which  was  written 
soon  after  by  a  North  Carolinian  named  Helper,  and 
denounced  violently  in  Congress,  shows  how  much 
those  Southerners  who  did  not  hold  slaves  would 
have  gained  by  emancipation ;  and  what  was  so 
plainly  for  the  interest  of  the  majority  of  the  voters 
would  have  been  established  by  them,  sooner  or  later, 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  breaking  out  of  civil  war. 


Emancipation  99 

How  much  danger  there  was,  even  in  1849,  ^^ 
slave-holders  is  shown  by  their  threats  to  secede. 
They  wished  to  increase  the  hostility  between 
North  and  South  in  order  to  check  the  spread 
southwards  of  Northern  views.  It  was  in  this  spirit 
that  Senators  and  Representatives  from  the  cotton 
States  demanded  a  more  efficient  law  for  returning 
fugitives.  Most  of  the  thirty  thousand  then  at  the 
North  had  come  from  Maryland,  Virginia,  Kentucky, 
and  Missouri;  and  these  States  were  invited  to  act 
with  their  southern  neighbours  against  abolitionism. 

There  were  very  few  secessionists  at  this  time, 
except  in  South  Carolina,  Mississippi,  and  Texas. 
President  Taylor  was  so  popular  at  the  South,  and 
so  avowedly  ready  to  take  command  himself  against 
rebels,  that  no  army  could  have  been  raised  to  resist 
him.  Webster  declared,  in  February,  1850,  that 
there  was  no  danger  of  secession ;  and  the  same 
opinion  was  held  by  Benton  of  Missouri,  Seward, 
and  other  Senators.  There  was  not  enough  alarm 
at  the  North  to  affect  the  stock-market.  All  that 
the  Whigs  needed  to  do  for  the  Union  was  to  sus- 
tain it  with  all  the  strength  which  they  could  use  for 
that  purpose  at  the  South.  If  they  had  also  insisted 
that  California  should  be  admitted  unconditionally, 
they  would  soon  have  had  support  enough  from 
Northern  Democrats  in  Congress.  The  demand  for 
a  national  party  of  freedom  was  urgent.  The  Free 
Soilers  were  too  sectional;  but  the  Whigs  had  so 
much  influence  at  the  South  that  they  could  have 
checked  the  extension  of  slavery  without  blood- 
shed ;  and  this  would  have  ensured  the  progress  of 
emancipation. 


lOO     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

III.  All  this  might  have  been  done  if  Clay's 
hatred  of  the  abolitionists,  who  had  refused  to 
make  him  President,  had  not  made  him  try  to 
cripple  them  by  another  compromise.  He  proposed 
that  California  should  be  admitted  at  once  and  with- 
out  slavery ;  that  it  should  be  left  to  the  settlers  in 
Utah  and  New  Mexico  to  decide  whether  these 
territories  should  ultimately  become  free  or  slave 
States;  that  Texas  should  receive  a  large  sum  of 
money,  as  well  as  a  great  tract  of  land  which  she 
had  threatened  to  take  from  New  Mexico  by  force; 
and,  worst  of  all,  that  a  new  fugitive-slave  bill 
should  be  passed.  The  law  then  on  the  statute 
books  left  the  question  whether  the  defendant 
should  be  enslaved  to  be  decided  by  a  magistrate 
elected  by  the'  people  or  appointed  by  the  gover- 
nor; and  the  court  was  so  apt  to  be  restricted  by 
local  legislation  or  public  opinion,  that  recovery  of 
fugitives  was  practically  impossible  in  New  Eng- 
land. The  new  law  retained  the  worst  provision  of 
the  old  one;  namely,  that  no  jury  could  be  asked  to 
decide  whether  the  defendant  had  ever  been  a  slave. 
The  principal  change  was  that  the  judge  was  to 
come  into  such  close  relations  with  the  national 
administration  as  to  be  independent  of  the  people 
of  the  State.  In  short,  fugitive  slaves  were  to  be 
punished,  and  disloyal  Texans  rewarded,  in  order 
that  California  might  get  her  rights. 

This  plan  was  approved  by  Webster,  who  hoped 
that  the  grateful  South  would  make  him  President, 
and  then  help  him  restore  those  protective  duties 
which  had  been  removed  in  1846.  Other  Northern- 
ers  called   the  compromise  one-sided;   and   so   did 


Emancipation  loi 

men  from  those  cotton  States  which  were  to  gain 
scarcely  anything.  President  Taylor  would  yield 
nothing  to  threats  of  rebellion.  It  was  not  until 
after  his  death  that  Clay's  proposals  could  be  car- 
ried through  Congress;  and  it  was  necessary  to 
present  them  one  by  one.  The  bill  by  which  Cali- 
fornia was  admitted,  in  September,  1850,  was  sand- 
wiched in  between  those  about  Texas  and  the 
fugitives.  The  latter  were  put  under  a  law  by  which 
their  friends  were  liable  to  be  fined  or  imprisoned ; 
but  the  new  Fugitive  Slave  Act  had  only  three  votes 
from  the  northern  Whigs  in  the  House  of  Represent- 
atives; and  there  were  only  four  Senators  who  actu- 
ally consented  to  all  Clay's  propositions. 

The  compromise  seemed  at  first  to  have  silenced 
both  secessionists  and  abolitionists.  The  latter 
were  assailed  by  worse  mobs  in  Boston  and  New 
York  than  had  been  the  case  in  these  cities  for  many 
years.  The  rioters  were  sustained  by  public  opin- 
ion; enthusiastic  Union  meetings  were  held  in  the 
large  cities;  and  Webster's  course  was  praised  by 
leading  ministers  of  all  denominations,  even  the 
Unitarian.  Abolitionism  had  apparently  been  re- 
duced to  such  a  position  that  it  could  lead  to  nothing 
but  civil  war.  Parker  complained,  in  May,  1850, 
that  the  clergy  were  deserting  the  cause.  Phillips 
spoke  at  this  time  as  if  there  were  no  anti-slavery 
ministers  left.  I  once  heard  friendly  hearers  inter- 
rupt him  by  shouting  out  names  like  Parker's  and 
Beecher's.  He  smiled,  and  began  counting  up 
name  after  name  on  the  fingers  of  his  left  hand; 
but  he  soon  tossed  it  up,  and  said  with  a  laugh,  "  I 
have  not  got  one  hand  full  yet." 


I02      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Webster's  friends  boasted  that  Satan  was  trodden 
underfoot;  but  the  compromise  was  taken  as  an 
admission  by  the  Whigs  that  their  party  had  cared 
too  httle  about  slavery.  Many  of  its  adherents 
went  over,  sooner  or  later,  to  the  Democratic  party, 
which  had  at  least  the  merit  of  consistency.  About 
half  of  the  Free  Soilers  deserted  what  seemed  to  be 
a  lost  cause;  but  few  if  any  went  back  to  help  the 
Whigs.  The  latter  did  not  elect  even  three- fourths 
as  many  members  of  Congress  in  November,  1850, 
as  they  did  in  1848;  and  they  fared  still  worse  in 
1852.  Democratic  aid  enabled  the  Free  Soilers  in 
185 1  to  send  Sumner  to  represent  them  in  the  Sen- 
ate, in  company  with  Hale  and  Chase.  Seward  had 
already  been  sent  there  by  the  anti-slavery  Whigs, 
and  had  met  Webster's  plea  for  the  constitutionality 
of  the  new  Fugitive  Slave  Law  by  declaring  that 
"  There  is  a  higher  law  than  the  Constitution." 
Sumner  maintained  in  Washington,  as  he  had  done 
in  Boston,  that  the  Constitution  as  well  as  the 
moral  law  forbade  helping  kidnappers.  He  was 
never  a  disunionist ;  but  he  insisted  that"  Unjust 
laws  are  not  binding";  and  he  was  supported  by 
the  mighty  influence  of  Emerson. 

The  effects  of  Transcendentalism  will  be  so  fully 
considered  in  the  next  chapter  but  one,  that  I  need 
speak  here  merely  of  what  it  did  to  encourage  re- 
sistance to  the  new  law  which  made  philanthropy 
a  crime.  The  penalties  on  charity  to  fugitives  were 
so  severe  as  to  call  out  much  indignation  from  the 
rural  clergy  at  the  North.  Li  November,  1850,  the 
Methodist  ministers  of  New  York  City  agreed  to 
demand  the  repeal  of  the  law ;  and  Parker  wrote  to 


Emancipation  103 

Fillmore,  who  had  been  made  President  by  Taylor's 
death,  that  among  eighty  Protestant  pastors  in  Bos- 
ton there  were  not  five  who  would  refuse  hospitality 
to  a  slave.  The  first  hunters  of  men  who  came  there 
met  such  a  resistance  that  they  did  not  try  to  cap- 
ture the  fugitives.  A  negro  who  was  arrested  was 
taken  by  coloured  friends  from  the  court-house;  and 
a  second  rescue  was  prevented  only  by  filling  the 
building  with  armed  hirelings,  surrounding  it  with 
heavy  chains  under  which  the  judges  were  obliged 
to  stoop,  and  finally  calling  out  the  militia  to  guard 
the  victim  through  the  streets  of  Boston.  A  slave- 
holder who  was  supposed  to  be  trying  to  drag  his 
own  son  back  to  bondage,  was  shot  dead  by  coloured 
men  in  Pennsylvania.  Other  fugitives  were  rescued 
in  Milwaukee  and  Syracuse.  The  new  law  lost  much 
of  its  power  in  twelve  months  of  such  conflicts;  and 
it  was  reduced  almost  to  a  dead  letter  by  Personal 
Liberty  bills,  which  were  enacted  in  nearly  every 
Northern  State.  The  compromise  was  not  making 
the  North  and  South  friends,  but  enemies. 

The  hostility  was  increased  by  the  publication  of 
the  most  influential  book  of  the  century.  Uncle 
Tom  s  Cabin  had  attracted  much  attention  as  a 
serial;  and  three  thousand  copies  were  sold  on  the 
day  it  appeared  in  book  form,  March  20,  1852. 
There  was  a  sale  that  year  of  two  hundred  thousand 
copies,  which  were  equally  welcome  in  parlour,  nur- 
sery, and  kitchen.  Dramatic  versions  had  a  great 
run;  and  one  actress  played  "  Little  Eva  "  at  more 
than  three  hundred  consecutive  performances. 
Some  of  the  most  effective  scenes  were  intended  to 
excite  sympathy  with  fugitive  slaves. 


I04     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

The  total  number  of  votes  for  all  parties  did  not 
increase  one-third  as  fast  between  1848  and  1852  as 
between  1852  and  1856,  when  many  of  "  Uncle 
Tom's  "  admirers  went  to  the  polls  for  the  first 
time.  The  Whigs  were  so  much  ashamed  of  their 
party,  that  they  permitted  every  State,  except  Mas- 
sachusetts, Vermont,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  to 
be  carried  by  the  Democrats.  The  latter  had  the  ad- 
vantage, not  only  of  unity  and  consistency  as  regards 
slavery,  but  of  having  made  their  low  tariff  so  much 
of  a  success  that  there  was  another  reduction  in 
1857.  The  two  parties  had  been  made  nearly  equal 
in  Congress  by  the  election  of  1848;  but  the  pro- 
portion was  changed  four  years  later,  to  two  to 
one,  and  the  beaten  party  soon  went  to  pieces. 

The  Free  Soil  candidates  and  platform  were  sin- 
gularly good  in  1852  ;  yet  the  vote  was  but  little  more 
than  one-half  as  large  as  in  1848.  There  was  no 
election  between  1835  and  1865  when  anti-slavery 
votes  seemed  so  little  likely  to  do  any  immediate 
good.  The  compromise  looked  like  an  irreparable 
error;  and  many  reformers  thought  they  could  do 
nothing  better  than  vote  with  the  Democrats  for 
free  trade. 

IV.  The  victors  in  1852  might  have  had  many 
years  of  supremacy,  if  they  had  kept  true  to  the 
Jeffersonian  principle  of  State  rights.  They  were 
consistent  in  holding  that  the  position  of  coloured 
people  in  each  State  ought  to  be  determined  by  the 
local  majority.  The  rights  of  Northerners  had  been 
invaded  by  the  new  law,  which  forbade  hospitality 
to  fugitives  and  demanded  participation  in  kidnap- 


Emancipation  105 

ping;  but  this  wrong  might  have  been  endured  if 
the  South  had  not  denied  the  right  of  Kansas  to 
become  a  free  State.  This  was  guaranteed  by  the 
compromise  of  1820,  which  had  been  kept  by  the 
North.  Early  in  1854,  Senator  Douglas  of  Illinois 
proposed  that  the  compact  should  be  repudiated, 
and  that  it  should  be  left  for  future  settlers  to  de- 
cide whether  there  should  be  freedom  or  slavery  in 
a  region  ten  times  as  large  as  Massachusetts,  with  a 
fertile  soil  and  a  climate  warm  enough  for  negro 
labour. 

There  was  such  prompt  and  intense  indignation 
throughout  the  North  at  this  breach  of  faith,  that 
Douglas  said  he  could  find  his  way  from  Chicago  to 
Boston  by  the  light  of  the  bonfires  in  which  he  was 
burned  in  ef^gy.  The  difference  of  opinion  be- 
tween city  and  country  clergy  ceased  at  once.  An 
Episcopalian  bishop  headed  the  remonstrance  which 
was  signed  by  nearly  every  minister  in  New  York 
City.  Two  other  bishops  signed  the  New  England 
protest  in  company  with  the  presidents  of  Yale, 
Brown,  Williams,  and  Amherst,  with  the  leaders  of 
every  Protestant  sect,  and  with  so  many  other  clergy- 
men that  the  sum  total  rose  above  three  thousand, 
which  was  four-fifths  of  the  whole  number.  Five 
hundred  ministers  in  the  North-west  signed  a  re- 
monstrance which  Douglas  was  obliged  to  present; 
and  so  many  such  memorials  came  in  from  all  the 
free  States,  as  to  show  that  there  was  very  little  pro- 
slavery  feeling  left  among  the  clergy,  except  in  the 
black  belt  north  of  the  Ohio. 

One-half  of  the  Northern  Democrats  in  the  House 
of  Representatives  refused  to  follow  Douglas.    Lead- 


io6      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

ing  men  from  all  parties  united  to  form  the  new  one, 
which  took  the  name  of  Republican  on  July  6,  1854, 
and  gained  control  of  the  next  House  of  Represent- 
atives. It  was  all  the  more  popular  because  it 
began  "  on  the  sole  basis  of  the  non-extension  of 
slavery."  Victory  over  the  South  could  be  gained 
only  by  uniting  the  North;  but  Garrison  still  kept 
on  saying,  "  If  we  would  see  the  slave-power  over- 
thrown, the  Union  must  be  dissolved."  On  July 
4,  1854,  two  days  before  the  Republican  party 
adopted  its  name,  he  burned  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  amid  several  thousand  spectators. 
Then  it  was  that  Thoreau  publicly  denied  his  alle- 
giance to  Massachusetts,  which  was  already  doing 
its  best  to  save  Kansas. 

Emigrants  from  New  England  were  sent  into  that 
territory  so  rapidly  that  the  Douglas  plan  seemed 
likely  to  hasten  the  time  when  it  would  be  a  free 
State.  The  South  had  insisted  on  the  rights  of  the 
settlers;  but  they  were  outvoted,  in  November, 
1854,  and  afterwards,  by  bands  of  armed  Missour- 
ians,  who  marched  off  when  they  had  carried  the 
election.  The  Free  State  men  were  then  supplied 
with  rifles;  and  an  anti-slavery  constitution  was 
adopted  by  the  majority  of  actual  residents.  The 
minority  were  supported  by  the  President,  as  well 
as  by  the  "  border-ruffians  "  ;  two  rival  governments 
were  set  up;  and  civil  war  began  early  in  1855. 
Lawrence,  the  principal  town  in  Kansas,  was  sacked 
by  command  of  the  United  States  Marshal,  the  most 
important  buildings  burned,  and  much  private  pro- 
perty stolen.  Five  settlers,  whose  threats  of  violence 
had  offended  John  Brown,  were  slain  in  cold  blood 


I 


Emancipation  107 

by  him  and  his  men,  in  retahation  for  the  Lawrence 
outrage,  in  May,  1856.  Anarchy  continued;  but 
the  new  State  was  not  admitted  until  1861. 

Prominent  among  the  Northerners  who  insisted 
on  the  right  of  Kansas  to  govern  herself,  was  Sum- 
ner. His  speech  in  the  Senate  in  May,  1856,  was 
so  powerful  that  half  a  million  copies  were  printed 
as  campaign  literature,  and  Whittier  said,  "  It  has 
saved  the  country."  The  orator  had  attacked  some 
of  his  colleagues  with  needless  severity;  and  on  the 
day  after  the  sack  of  Lawrence,  he  was  assaulted  by 
a  Representative  from  South  Carolina  in  the  Senate 
Chamber  with  such  ferocity  that  he  could  not  re- 
turn to  his  seat  before  i860.  This  cruel  outrage 
against  freedom  of  speech  was  universally  applauded 
throughout  the  South. 

There  was  indignation  enough  at  the  North  in 
1856  to  have  given  the  election  to  the  Republicans, 
if  the  field  had  been  clear;  but  Protestant  bigotry 
enabled  the  South  to  choose  the  President  who 
failed  to  oppose  rebellion.  The  Catholics  had  ob- 
jected as  early  as  1840  to  the  Protestantism  which 
was  taught,  in  part  at  their  expense,  to  their  children 
in  the  public  schools.  Some  ways  in  which  this 
was  done  then  have  since  been  abandoned ;  but  the 
principal  controversy  has  been  about  using  a  book 
which  is  universally  acknowledged  to  be  a  bulwark 
of  Protestantism.  There  would  not  be  so  much 
zeal  at  present  for  having  it  read  daily  in  the  schools, 
if  it  has  no  religious  influence;  and  our  Catholic 
citizens  have  a  right  to  prefer  that  their  child- 
ren should  be  taught  religion  in  ways  not  forbid- 
den by  their  Church.       Pupils  have  not  had   much 


io8      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

moral  or  even  reh'gious  benefit  from  school-books 
against  which  their  conscience  rebelled,  however 
unreasonably. 

The  Catholic  position  in  1841,  according  to  Bishop 
Hughes,  afterwards  Archbishop,  was  this:  "  We  do 
not  ask  money  from  the  school  fund  ; — all  our  desire 
is  that  it  should  be  administered  in  such  a  way  as  to 
promote  the  education  of  all  "  and  "  leave  the 
various  denominations  each  in  the  full  possession  of 
its  religious  rights  over  the  minds  of  its  own  child- 
ren. If  the  children  are  to  be  educated  promiscu- 
ously, as  at  present,  let  religion  in  every  shape  and 
form  be  excluded." 

The  Catholics  soon  changed  their  ground,  and 
demanded  that  their  parochial  schools  should  be 
supported  by  public  money.  This  called  out  the 
opposition  of  a  secret  society,  which  insisted  on 
keeping  the  Bible  in  the  schools  and  excluding 
Catholics  from  office.  The  Know  Nothings  had  the 
aid  of  so  many  Whigs  in  1854  as  to  elect  a  large 
number  of  candidates,  most  of  whom  were  friendly 
to  the  Republicans.  The  leaders  wished  to  remain 
neutral  between  North  and  South ;  but  it  is  hard  to 
say  whether  the  pledge  of  loyalty  to  the  Union  did 
not  facilitate  the  capture  of  the  organisation  by  the 
insatiable  South  early  in  1856.  Beecher  had  already 
declared  that  the  Know  Nothing  lodges  were  "  cat- 
acombs of  freedom  "  in  which  indignation  against 
slavery  was  stifled. 

The  presidential  election  showed  that  the  out- 
burst of  bigotry  had  done  more  harm  to  friends 
than  enemies  of  liberty.  The  Democrats  lost 
Maryland,  but  gained  Pennsylvania  and  four  other 


1 


Emancipation  109 

Northern  States.  This  enabled  them  to  retain  the 
Presidency  and  the  Senate,  as  well  as  to  recover  the 
House  of  Representatives,  where  they  had  become 
weaker  than  the  Republicans.  The  party  of  free- 
dom polled  eight  times  as  many  votes  as  in  1852, 
and  made  its  first  appearance  in  the  electoral  col- 
leges. It  carried  eleven  States.  The  Whigs  had 
accepted  the  Know  Nothing  nominee;  and  both 
these  neutral  parties  soon  dissolved. 

Anarchy  in  Kansas  had  been  suppressed  by 
United  States  dragoons;  but  they  did  not  prevent 
the  adoption  of  a  pro-slavery  constitution  by  bogus 
elections.  Buchanan  promptly  advised  Congress  to 
admit  Kansas  as  a  slave  State,  and  declared  she  was 
already  as  much  one  as  Georgia  or  South  Carolina. 
This  opinion  he  based  on  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
by  the  Supreme  Court,  that  Congress  had  no  power 
to  prohibit  slavery  in  any  territory.  Douglas  in- 
sisted on  the  right  of  the  people  of  Kansas  to  "  vote 
slavery  up  or  down."  They  were  enabled  by  the 
joint  efforts  of  Republicans  and  Northern  Democrats 
to  have  a  fair  chance  to  say  whether  they  wished  to 
become  a  slave  State  or  remain  a  territory;  and  the 
latter  was  preferred  by  four-fifths  of  the  voters. 

V.  The  South  called  Douglas  a  traitor;  but  lead- 
ing Republicans  helped  the  Illinois  Democrats,  in 
1858,  to  elect  the  Legislature  which  gave  him  another 
term  in  the  Senate.  He  might  have  become  the 
next  President  if  his  opponent  in  the  senatorial 
contest,  Abraham  Lincoln,  had  not  led  the  Repub- 
lican party  into  the  road  towards  emancipation.  On 
June  16,  1858,  he  said,  in  the  State  convention:  "A 


iio     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

house  divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  I  believe 
this  government  cannot  endure  permanently  half 
slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  Union  to 
be  dissolved — I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall — 
but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will 
become  all  one  thing  or  all  the  other."  Seward 
took  the  same  position,  four  months  later,  in  his 
speech  about  the  "  irrepressible  conflict."  Lincoln 
held  that  summer  and  autumn  a  series  of  joint  de- 
bates with  his  opponent,  before  audiences  one  of 
which  was  estimated  at  twenty  thousand.  The 
speeches  were  circulated  by  the  Republicans  as 
campaign  documents ;  and  Lincoln's  were  remark- 
able, not  only  for  his  giving  no  needless  provocation 
to  the  South,  but  for  his  proving  that  slavery  ought 
not  to  be  introduced  into  any  new  territory  or  State 
by  local  elections.  He  represented  Douglas  as 
really  holding  that  if  one  man  chooses  to  enslave 
another  no  third  man  has  any  business  to  interfere; 
and  he  repudiated  the  decision  in  the  Dred  Scott 
case,  that  coloured  people  "  had  no  rights  which 
the  white  man  was  bound  to  respect."  He  had 
more  votes  that  fall  than  Douglas;  but  the  latter's 
friends  were  enabled  by  the  district  system  to  con- 
trol the  Legislature.  Douglas  was  sent  back  to  the 
Senate.  Lincoln  gained  the  national  reputation 
which  made  him   President. 

The  congressional  elections  were  more  favourable 
to  the  Republicans  than  in  1856,  for  Northern  in- 
dignation was  growing  under  the  stimulus,  not  only 
of  the  new  wrong  to  Kansas,  but  of  attempts  to 
annex  Cuba  and  revive  the  slave  trade.  Plans  for 
emancipation  were  still  discussed  in  the  South;  and 


Emancipation  1 1 1 

the  agitation  had  reached  even  Texas.  Helper's 
Lnpcjiding  Crisis  had  gained  circulation  enough  in 
his  own  State,  North  Carolina,  to  alarm  the  slave- 
holders. They  knew  that  they  constituted  only 
three-tenths  of  the  Southern  voters,  and  that  the 
proportion  was  less  than  one-sixth  in  Maryland. 
Helper  proved  that  emancipation  would  be  greatly 
to  the  advantage  of  many  men  who  held  slaves,  as 
well  as  of  all  who  did  not.  When  this  was  found 
out  by  the  majority  in  any  Southern  State,  slavery 
would  begin  to  fall  by  its  own  weight.  It  had  been 
kept  up  by  popular  ignorance;  but  the  prop  was 
crumbling  away.  This  way  of  emancipation  might 
have  been  long;  but  it  would  have  led  to  friendly 
relations  between  whites  and  blacks,  as  well  as  be- 
tween North  and  South. 

What  was  most  needed  in  1859  ^^as  that  all  friends 
of  freedom  should  work  together,  and  that  no  need- 
less pretext  should  be  given  for  secession.  Garrison 
still  insisted  on  disunion,  and  predicted  that  the 
South  would  not  "  be  able  to  hold  a  single  slave  one 
hour  after  the  deed  is  done,"  but  he  also  main- 
tained, as  most  abolitionists  did,  that  nothing  would 
be  more  foolish  than  trying  to  excite  a  slave  insur- 
rection. Precisely  this  greatest  of  blunders  was 
committed  at  Harper's  Ferry.  If  the  attempt  had 
been  made  six  months  later,  or  had  had  even  a  few 
weeks  of  success,  it  might  have  enabled  the  slave- 
holders to  elect  at  least  one  more  President.  The 
bad  effect,  in  dividing  the  North,  was  much  dimin- 
ished by  John  Brown's  heroism  at  his  trial  and  exe- 
cution ;  but  great  provocation  was  given  to  the 
South,  and  especially  to  Virginia,  which  soon  turned 


112     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

out  to  be  the  most  dangerous  of  the  rebel  States. 
Business  men  were  driven  North  by  the  dozen  from 
cities  which  were  preparing  for  war. 

The  quarrel  between  Northern  and  Southern 
Democrats  kept  growing  fiercer;  and  the  party 
broke  up  at  the  convention  for  i860  into  two  sec- 
tional factions  with  antagonistic  platforms  and  can- 
didates. Douglas  still  led  the  opposition  to  those 
Southerners  who  maintained  that  the  nation  ought 
to  protect  slavery  in  the  territories.  A  third  ticket 
was  adopted  by  neutrals  who  had  been  Whigs  or 
Know  Nothings,  and  who  now  professed  no  principle 
but  a  vague  patriotism.  The  Republicans  remained 
pledged  to  exclude  slavery  from  the  territories;  but 
they  condemned  John  Brown,  and  said  nothing 
against  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  or  in  favour  of  eman- 
cipation in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Their  leaders 
had  favoured  free  trade  in  1857;  but  the  platform 
was  now  made  protectionist,  in  order  to  prevent 
Pennsylvania  from  being  carried  again  by  the  Demo- 
crats. Illinois  and  Indiana  were  secured  by  the 
nomination  of  Lincoln.  He  was  supported  enthu- 
siastically by  the  young  men  throughout  the  North  : 
public  meetings  were  large  and  frequent;  torchlight 
processions  were  a  prominent  feature  of  the  cam- 
paign. The  wealth  and  intellect  of  the  nation,  as 
well  as  its  conscience,  were  now  arrayed  against 
slavery;  but  the  clergy  are  said  to  have  been  less 
active  than  in  1856.  Lincoln  had  the  majority  in 
every  Northern  State,  except  New  Jersey,  California, 
and  Oregon.  He  also  had  17,028  votes  in  Missouri, 
and  8042  in  other  slave  States  which  had  sent  dele- 
gates to  the  Republican  convention.     Not  one  of 


Emancipation  113 

the  Southern  electors  was  for  Lincoln  ;  but  he  would 
have  become  President  if  all  his  opponents  had  com- 
bined against  him. 

VI.  The  South  had  nothing  to  fear  from  Congress 
before  1863,  but  she  had  lost  control  of  the  North. 
Kansas  would  certainly  be  admitted  sooner  or  later; 
and  there  would  never  be  another  slave  State,  for 
the  Republican  plan  for  the  territories  was  confirmed 
by  their  geographical  position.  The  free  States 
might  soon  become  so  numerous  and  populous  as 
to  prohibit  the  return  of  fugitives,  abolish  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  repeal  the  clause  of  the 
Constitution  which  allowed  representation  for  slaves, 
and  forbid  their  transportation  from  State  to  State. 
It  was  also  probable,  in  the  opinion  of  Salmon  P. 
Chase,  afterwards  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and 
of  many  leading  Southerners,  that  under  Federal 
patronage  there  might  soon  be  a  majority  for  eman- 
cipation in  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  other  States 
(see  Life  of  TJicodore  Parker,  by  Weiss,  vol.  ii.,  pp. 
229,  519).  The  vote  of  thanks  given  to  Parker  in 
1855  by  the  hearers  of  his  anti-slavery  lecture  in 
Delaware,  showed  that  abolitionism  would  event- 
ually become  predominant  in  the  Senate,  as  it  was 
already  in  the  House  of  Representatives. 

This  prospect  was  especially  alarming  to  the  com- 
paratively few  men  who  owned  so  many  slaves  that 
they  could  not  afford  emancipation  on  any  terms. 
Their  wealth  and  leisure  gave  them  complete  control 
of  politics,  business,  public  opinion,  and  social  life 
in  the  cotton  States;  where  both  press  and  pulpit 
were  in  bondao;e.     Their  influence  was  much  less  in 


114     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

the  farming  States  than  in  1850 ;  but  they  had  since 
come  into  such  perfect  union  among  themselves,  as 
to  constitute  the  most  powerful  aristocracy  then  ex- 
tant. Their  number  may  be  judged  from  the  fact 
that  there  were  in  1850  about  six  thousand  people  in 
the  cotton  States  who  owned  fifty  slaves  or  more 
each. 

It  was  in  the  interest  of  these  barons  of  slavery 
that  South  Carolina  seceded  soon  after  the  election, 
^nd  that  her  example  was  followed  by  Georgia  and 
all  the  Gulf  States  before  Lincoln  was  inaugurated. 
The  Garrisonists  wished  to  have  them  depart  in 
peace;  but  there  was  a  strong  and  general  prefer- 
ence for  another  compromise.  Lincoln  and  other 
Republicans  insisted  that  the  territories  should  be 
kept  sacred  to  freedom,  and  that  "  The  Union  must 
be  preserved."  The  question  was  settled  by  those 
aggressions  on  national  property  which  culminated 
in  the  bombardment  of  Fort  Sumter.  Lincoln's 
call  to  arms  was  answered  by  a  great  uprising  of  the 
united  North.  Loyalty  to  the  nation  burst  forth  in 
so  fierce  a  flame  that  abolitionists  who  had  been 
trying  for  many  years  to  ex-tinguish  it  now  welcomed 
it  as  the  destined  destroyer  of  slavery. 

War  had  been  declared  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
suppressing  rebellion ;  and  nothing  more  could  at 
first  have  been  attempted  without  violating  the 
Constitution.  Fugitives  were  sent  back  promptly 
by  Federal  generals,  and  anti-slavery  songs  forbid- 
den in  the  camps.  This  policy  seemed  necessary  to 
keep  the  North  united,  and  prevent  secession  of 
doubtful  States.  Some  of  those  already  in  revolt 
might  thus,  it  was  hoped,  be  induced  to  return  vol- 


Emancipation  115 

untarily,  or  be  conquered  easily.  These  expecta- 
tions were  soon  disappointed.  A  few  of  the  slave 
States  were  kept  in  subjection  by  military  force ;  but 
the  people  of  the  others  united  in  a  desperate  re- 
sistance, with  the  aid  of  the  slaves,  who  supplied  the 
armies  with  food  and  laboured  without  complaint 
in  camps  and  forts.  But  little  was  accomplished 
by  the  immense  armies  raised  at  the  North;  for 
the  discipline  was  at  first  lax,  and  the  generals 
were  inefificient.  Many  defeats  of  Union  armies 
by  inferior  forces  showed  how  difficult  it  is  for  a 
nation  that  has  enjoyed  many  years  of  peace  to 
turn  conqueror. 

VII.  The  innate  incompatibility  of  war  and  liberty 
was  disclosed  by  the  unfortunate  fact  that  even  Lin- 
coln was  obliged  to  consent  unwillingly  to  war 
measures  of  a  very  questionable  sort;  for  instance, 
the  conscription  and  that  Legal  Tender  Act  which 
was  really  a  forced  loan,  and  which  has  done  much 
to  encourage  subsequent  violations  of  the  right  of 
property  by  both  Republicans  and  Democrats  in 
Congress.  More  harm  than  good  was  done  to  the 
Union  cause  by  arbitrary  arrests  for  talking  and 
writing  against  the  war.  Phillips  declared,  in  De- 
cember, 1 861,  that  "  The  right  of  free  meetings  and 
a  free  press  is  suspended  in  every  square  mile  of  the 
republic."  "  At  this  moment  one  thousand  men 
are  bastilled. "  Hale  and  other  Republican  Senators 
remonstrated;  and  so  patriotic  an  author  as  Holmes 
said  that  teapots  might  be  dangerous,  if  the  lids 
were  shut.  All  political  prisoners  but  spies  were 
released  by  the  President  early  in   1862;  and  there 


ii6     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

were  no  more  arbitrary  arrests  except  under  plea  of 
military  necessity. 

Failures  of  Union  generals  encouraged  opposition 
to  the  war  from  men  who  still  preferred  compromise ; 
and  their  disaffection  was  increased  by  the  passage, 
in  March,  1863,  of  a  bill  establishing  a  conscription 
and  putting  all  the  people  under  martial  law.  The 
commander  of  the  military  district  that  included 
Ohio  issued  orders  which  forbade  "  declaring  sym- 
pathy for  the  enemy,"  and  threatened  with  death 
"  all  persons  within  our  lines  who  harbour,  protect, 
feed,  clothe,  or  in  any  way  aid  the  enemies."  These 
orders  were  denounced  as  unconstitutional  at  a 
public  meeting  before  more  than  ten  thousand  cit- 
izens. Many  wore  badges  cut  from  the  large  copper 
coins  then  in  use  and  bearing  the  sacred  image  and 
superscription  of  Liberty.  This  practice  brought 
the  nickname  "Copperheads"  upon  people  who 
longed  to  have  the  South  invited  back  on  her  own 
terms.  Such  a  policy  was  recommended  at  the  meet- 
ing by  Vallandigham,  who  had  recently  represented 
Ohio  in  Congress.  He  called  upon  the  people  to 
vote  against  the  "  wicked  war,"  and  said  he  would 
never  obey  orders  aimed  against  public  discussion. 

For  this  speech  he  was  arrested  at  night,  by 
soldiers  who  broke  into  his  house,  tried  by  court- 
martial,  and  sentenced  on  May  7,  1863,  to  imprison- 
ment during  the  remainder  of  the  war.  A  writ  of 
habeas  corpus  was  refused  by  the  United  States 
Court,  which  admitted  itself  "  powerless  to  enforce 
obedience."     At  the  clang  of  war,  laws  are  silent. 

Indignation  meetings  in  great  cities  voted  that 
"  The  Union  cannot  be  restored  without  freedom  of 


I 


Emancipation  1 1  7 

speech."  Loyal  newspapers  regretted  that  Vallan- 
digham  was  under  "  a  penalty  which  will  make  him 
a  martyr."  A  petition  for  his  release  was  sent  to 
Lincoln,  who  had  not  ordered  the  arrest  and  ad- 
mitted that  it  was  not  justified  by  the  speech.  He 
concluded  that  the  culprit's  behaviour  towards  the 
army  had  been  so  dangerous  that  he  had  better  be 
sent  South,  beyond  the  lines.  This  was  done  at 
once ;  but  the  agitator  was  allowed  to  return  through 
Canada  in  the  last  summer  of  the  war.  Even  Lin- 
coln found  it  difficult  to  respect  individual  liberty 
under  the  pressure  of  military  necessity.  A  strong 
government  was  needed ;  and  that  fact  has  opened 
the  way  for  Congress  to  interfere  with  private  busi- 
ness, for  instance  in  changing  the  tariff,  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  century  much  more  frequently  and 
extensively  than  had  been  done  before.  Another 
significant  fact  is  that  the  old  controversy  about  in- 
ternal improvements  has  died  away  since  our  govern- 
ment was  centralised  by  war;  and  much  money  is 
wasted  under  that  pretext  by  Congress. 

Vin.  The  impossibility  of  putting  down  the  re- 
bellion without  interfering  with  slavery  gradually 
became  plain,  even  to  men  who  had  formerly  hated 
abolitionism.  The  only  question  was  how  to  turn 
what  was  the  strength  of  the  Confederacy  into  its 
weakness.  In  March,  1862,  Congress  forbade  the 
army  to  return  fugitives;  and  many  thousand  fled 
into  the  Union  camps,  where  they  did  good  service, 
not  only  as  teamsters  and  labourers,  but  even  as 
soldiers.  The  number  under  arms  amounted  finally 
to  more  than  a  hundred   thousand;  and  they  did 


ii8     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

some  of  the  best  fighting  that  took  place  during  the 
war.  The  colour  prejudice  at  the  North  yielded 
slowly;  but  the  leading  Republicans  saw  not  only 
the  need  of  more  soldiers,  but  the  justice  of  setting 
free  the  wives  and  children  of  men  who  were  risking 
death  for  the  nation.  An  Emancipation  League 
was  formed  during  the  first  gloomy  winter  of  the 
war;  and  Frederick  Douglass  said  on  the  Fourth  of 
July  amid  great  applause:  "You  must  abolish 
slavery,  or  abandon  the  Union  "  ;  "for  slavery  is  the 
life  of  the  rebellion." 

Lincoln  was  already  thinking  of  setting  free  the 
slaves  in  all  the  States  which  should  continue  in  re- 
bellion after  the  close  of  the  year;  and  his  draft  of 
a  proclamation,  announcing  this  purpose,  was  read 
to  the  Cabinet  on  July  22,  1862.  The  army  in  Vir- 
ginia had  been  so  unfortunate  that  summer  as  to 
cause  a  postponement;  but  the  victory  of  Antietam 
was  followed  by  the  publication,  on  September  22d, 
of  the  formal  notice  that  emancipation  might  be 
proclaimed  on  the  ist  of  January.  How  welcome 
the  new  policy  was  to  loyal  citizens  may  be  judged 
from  the  approbation  expressed  by  the  clergy  of  all 
denominations,  even  the  New  School  Presbyterian, 
Episcopalian,  and  Roman  Catholic.  When  New 
Year's  Day  dawned  there  was  much  doubt  whether 
the  promise  would  be  fulfilled.  Abolitionists  and 
coloured  people  met  in  Boston  and  other  cities,  and 
waited  hour  after  hour,  hoping  patiently.  It  was 
evening  before  the  proclamation  began  to  pass  over 
the  wires.  It  promised  freedom  to  all  slaves  in 
Arkansas,  Texas,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Florida, 
Georgia,   South  Carolina,   and  North  Carolina,  be- 


Emancipation  119 

sides  most  of  those  in  Louisiana  and  Virginia.  Ten- 
nessee and  some  other  States  were  not  mentioned, 
because  held  to  have  been  brought  back  into  the 
Union.  There  was  to  be  freedom  thenceforth 
wherever  the  Stars  and  Stripes  waved.  No  wonder 
that  the  news  caused  great  audiences  to  shout  or 
weep  with  joy,  and  many  to  spend  the  night  in 
praise  and  prayer.  The  North  was  now  inspired  by 
motives  amply  sufificient  to  justify  even  a  war  of 
conquest ;  and  her  men  and  money  were  given 
freely,  until  superiority  in  resources  enabled  General 
Grant  to  close  the  war  in  April,  1865.  The  revolted 
States  came  back,  one  by  one,  and  left  slavery  be- 
hind. Even  where  it  had  not  been  formally  abol- 
ished, it  was  practically  extinct.  Douglass  was 
right  in  saying  "  It  was  not  the  destruction,  but 
the  salvation  of  the  Union,  that  saved  the  slave." 

An  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  which  swept 
away  the  last  vestiges  of  slavery,  and  made  it  for 
ever  impossible  in  the  United  States,  was  adopted 
on  December  18,  1865.  It  had  been  proposed  two 
years  before;  but  the  assent  of  several  States  then 
actually  in  revolt  would  have  been  necessary  to 
secure  the  majority  of  three-fourths  necessary  for 
adoption  of  an  amendment.  It  was  by  no  means  cer- 
tain that  even  the  nominally  loyal  States  would  all 
vote  unanimously  for  emancipation.  In  order  to  in- 
crease the  majority  for  the  Thirteenth  Amendment, 
the  admission  of  Nevada  and  Colorado  as  States  was 
voted  by  Congress,  despite  some  opposition  by  the 
Democrats,  in  March,  1864.  Nevada  had  a  popu- 
lation of  less  than  43,000  in  1870.  There  were  not 
46,000  people  there  in  1890,  and  there  had  been  a 


I20     Liberty  In  the  Nineteenth  Century 

decline  since  1880.  It  is  not  likely  that  her  inhabit- 
ants will  ever  be  numerous  enough  to  justify  her 
having  as  much  power  in  the  Senate  as  New  York 
or  Pennsylvania.  Senators  who  represent  millions 
of  constituents  have  actually  been  prevented  from 
passing  necessary  laws  by  Senators  who  did  not 
represent  even  twenty-five  thousand  people  each. 
Nevada  is  still  the  worst  instance  of  such  injustice; 
but  it  is  by  no  means  the  only  one;  and  these 
wrongs  can  never  be  righted,  for  the  Constitution 
provides  that  "  No  State,  without  its  consent,  shall 
be  deprived  of  its  equal  suffrage  in  the  Senate." 
The  Thirteenth  Amendment  did  not,  I  think,  come 
into  force  a  day  earlier  than  it  would  have  done  if 
Nevada  had  never  been  admitted,  for  the  bona-fide 
States  came  forward  with  unexpected  willingness. 
Colorado  was  not  fully  admitted  before  1876.  Lin- 
coln's favouring  the  bills  for  admitting  these  States 
was  a  serious  error,  though  the  motive  was  patriotic. 
His  beauty  and  grandeur  of  character  make  the 
brightest  feature  of  those  dark,  sad  years.  No 
name  stands  higher  among  martyrs  for  freedom. 

IX.  There  is  no  grander  event  in  all  history  than 
the  emancipation  of  four  million  slaves.  This  was 
all  the  more  picturesque  because  done  by  a  conquer- 
ing army;  but  it  was  all  the  more  hateful  to  the 
former  owners.  They  refused  to  educate  or  enfran- 
chise the  freedmen,  and  tried  to  reduce  them  to 
serfdom  by  heavy  taxes  and  cruel  punishments  for 
petty  crimes.  The  States  which  had  seceded  were 
kept  under  military  dictators  after  the  war  was  over; 
and  their  people  were  forced  to  accept  the  Four- 


Emancipation  121 

teenth  Amendment,  which  gave  protection  to  col- 
oured people  as  citizens  of  the  United  States, 

In  1867  there  were  twenty-one  Northern  States; 
but  only  Maine,  New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont 
gave  the  ballot  freely  to  illiterate  negroes  without 
property.  Massachusetts  had  an  educational  test 
for  all  voters;  there  were  other  restrictions  else- 
where; and  no  coloured  men  could  vote  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, New  Jersey,  or  the  North-west.  In  fact,  very 
few  had  ever  voted  anywhere  when  Congress  gave 
the  suffrage  to  all  the  freed  men  for  their  own  pro- 
tection, with  no  discrimination  against  illiteracy. 

The  result  of  this  measure  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia was  that  unscrupulous  politicians  gained 
strong  support  from  needy  and  ignorant  voters  of 
all  colours.  Public  money  w^as  spent  recklessly ; 
taxation  became  oppressive ;  and  the  public  debt 
grew  to  alarming  size.  On  June  17,  1874,  when 
Grant  was  President  and  each  branch  of  Congress 
was  more  than  two-thirds  Republican,  the  House 
of  Representatives  voted,  ten  to  one,  in  favour  of 
taking  away  the  suffrage,  not  only  from  the  blacks 
who  had  received  it  seven  years  before,  but  even 
from  the  whites  who  had  exercised  it  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  century.  All  local  government  was 
entrusted  to  three  commissioners  appointed  by  the 
President  and  confirmed  by  the  Senate.  There  was 
no  opposition;  for  the  arrangement  seemed  only 
temporary.  It  proved  permanent.  Even  taxation 
without  representation  has  been  thought  better  than 
negro  suffrage;  and  the  citizens  of  the  national  cap- 
ital remain  in  1899  without  any  voice  in  their  own 
municipal  government. 


122     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

The  problem  has  been  still  more  difficult  in  those 
eleven  States  which  had  to  accept  negro  suffrage,  in 
or  after  1867,  as  a  condition  of  restoration  to  the 
Union.  The  extension  of  franchise  made  in  all  the 
States  by  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  in  1 870,  seemed 
such  a  blessing  to  the  Republicans  that  Frederick 
Douglass  was  much  censured  for  holding  that  it 
might  possibly  have  been  attained  without  special 
supernatural  assistance.  It  soon  became  plain, 
however,  that  Congress  ought  to  have  given  the 
spelling-book  earlier  than  the  ballot.  The  suffrage 
proved  no  protection  to  the  freedman  ;  for  his  white 
neighbours  found  that  he  could  be  more  easily  in- 
timidated than  educated.  Congress  tried  to  pre- 
vent murder  of  coloured  voters  by  having  the  polls 
guarded  by  Federal  troops  and  the  elections  super- 
vised by  United  States  marshals.  The  Habeas 
•  Corpus  Act  was  suspended  by  President  Grant  in 
districts  where  the  blacks  outnumbered  the  whites. 
It  was  hard  to  see  what  liberty  had  gained. 

The  negro's  worst  enemies  were  his  own  candi- 
dates. They  had  enormous  majorities  in  South  Car- 
olina; and  there,  as  Blaine  admits,  they  "  brought 
shame  upon  the  Republican  party,"  "  and  thus 
wrought  for  the  cause  of  free  government  and  equal 
suffrage  in  the  South  incalculable  harm."  Between 
1868  and  1872  they  added  ten  millions  by  wanton 
extravagance  to  the  State  debt.  Large  sums  were 
stolen ;  taxes  rose  to  six  per  cent.  ;  and  land  was 
assessed  far  above  its  value,  with  the  avowed  pur- 
pose of  taking  it  away  from  the  whites.  Such 
management  was  agreed  at  a  public  meeting  of 
coloured  voters  under  Federal  protection,  in  Charles- 


Emancipation  123 

ton,  in  1874,  to  have  "  ruined  our  people  and  dis- 
graced our  State."  Negro  suffrage  was  declared 
by  the  New  York  Evening  Post  to  have  resulted  in 

organising  the  ignorance  and  poverty  of  the  State 
against  its  property  and  intelligence." 

This  took  place  all  over  the  South,  and  also  in 
Philadelphia,  New  York,  and  other  northern  cities. 
Here  the  illiterate  vote  was  largely  European ;  and 
the  corruption  of  politics  was  facilitated  by  the 
absorption  of  property-holders  in  business.  There 
was  great  need  that  intelligent  citizens  of  all  races, 
parties,  and  sections  should  work  together  to  reform 
political  methods  sufHciently  to  secure  honest  gov- 
ernment. Some  progress  has  already  been  made, 
but  by  no  means  so  much  as  might  have  been  gained 
if  the  plundered  taxpayers  at  the  South  had  made 
common  cause  with  those  at  the  North  in  estab- 
lishing constitutional  bulwarks  against  all  swindlers 
whose  strength  was  in  the  illiterate  and  venal  vote. 

Unfortunately,  prejudice  against  negroes  en- 
couraged intimidation;  and  fraud  was  used  freely 
by  both  parties.  When  elections  were  doubted, 
Republican  candidates  were  seated  by  Federal  offi- 
cials and  United  States  soldiers.  These  latter  were 
not  resisted ;  but  the  Southern  Democrats  made 
bloody  attacks  on  the  negro  militia.  One  such 
fight  at  New  Orleans,  on  September  14,  1874,  cost 
nearly  thirty  lives.  What  was  called  a  Republican 
administration  collapsed  that  day  throughout  Louis- 
iana; but  it  was  soon  set  up  again  by  the  army 
which  had  brought  it  into  power. 

At  last  the  negroes  found  out  that,  whoever 
might  conquer  in  this  civil  war,  they  would  certainly 


124     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

lose.  They  grew  tired  of  having  hostile  parties 
fighting  over  them,  and  dropped  out  of  politics. 
The  Republicans  held  full  possession  of  the  pre- 
sidency, both  branches  of  Congress,  the  Federal 
courts,  the  army,  the  of^ces  in  the  nation's  service, 
and  most  of  the  State  governments;  but  they  could 
not  prevent  the  South  from  becoming  solidly  Demo- 
cratic. The  new  governments  proved  more  econom- 
ical, and  the  lives  of  the  coloured  people  more  secure. 
The  last  important  result  of  negro  suffrage  in  South 
Carolina  and  Louisiana  was  an  alarming  dispute  as 
to  who  was  elected  President  in  1876.  The  ballot 
has  not  been  so  great  a  blessing  to  the  freedmen 
as  it  might  have  been  if  it  had  been  preceded  by 
national  schools,  and  given  voluntarily  by  State  after 
State. 

These  considerations  justify  deep  regret  that 
emancipation  was  not  gained  peaceably  and  gradu- 
ally. Facts  have  been  given  to  show  that  it  might 
have  been  if  there  had  been  more  philanthropy 
among  the  clergy,  more  principle  among  the  Whigs, 
and  more  wisdom  among  the  abolitionists. 


CHAPTER  V 


EMERSON   AND    OTHER   TRANSCENDENTALISTS 


I.  The  best  work  for  liberty  has  been  done  by 
men  who  loved  her  too  wisely  to  vituperate  anyone 
for  differing  from  them,  or  to  forestall  the  final 
verdict  of  public  opinion  by  appealing  to  an  ordeal 
by  battle.  Such  were  the  men  who  took  the  lead 
in  establishing  freedom  of  thought  in  America. 
Very  little  individual  independence  of  opinion  was 
found  there  by  Tocqueville  in  183 1  ;  and  the  flood 
of  new  ideas  which  had  already  burst  forth  in  Eng- 
land was  not  as  yet  feeding  the  growth  of  originality 
in  American  literature.  This  sterility  was  largely 
due  to  preoccupation  with  business  and  politics; 
but  even  the  best  educated  men  in  the  United 
States  were  repressed  by  the  dead  weight  of  the 
popular  theology;  and  Channing  complained  that 
the  orthodox  churches  were  "  arrayed  against  intel- 
lect." The  silence  of  the  pulpit  about  slavery  is 
only  one  instance  of  the  general  indifference  of  the 
clergy  to  new  ideas.  We  shall  see  that  at  least  one 
other  reform  was  opposed  much  more  zealously. 
The  circulation  of  new  books  and  magazines  from 
Europe  was  retarded  by  warnings  against  infidelity; 
and  colleges  were  carefully  guarded  against  the 
invasion  of  new  truth. 

125 


126     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Intercourse  with  Europe  was  fortunately  close 
enough  for  the  brightness  of  her  literature  and  art 
to  attract  many  longing  eyes  from  New  England. 
Goethe,  Schiller,  Fichte,  Jean  Paul,  Mme.  de  Stael, 
and  Rousseau  won  readers  in  the  original,  as  well  as 
in  translations ;  and  the  influence  of  Shelley,  Words- 
worth, Coleridge,  and  Carlyle  increased  rapidly. 
Plato  and  Kant  found  many  worshippers,  and  a  few 
students.  The  plain  incapacity  of  orthodoxy  to 
solve  the  pressing  moral  and  intellectual  problems 
of  the  day  permitted  young  people  who  knew 
nothing  about  science  to  welcome  the  idea  that  the 
highest  truth  is  revealed  by  intuitions  which  trans- 
cend experience  and  should  supersede  logic.  This 
system  is  peculiarly  that  of  Schelling,  who  was  then 
expounding  it  in  Germany ;  but  the  credit  for  it  in 
America  was  given  to  his  disciples,  and  especially 
to  Coleridge.  A  few  admirers  of  these  authors 
formed  the  Transcendental  Club  in  Boston,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1836;  and  the  new  philosophy  made  con- 
verts rapidly.  Severity  of  climate  and  lack  of  social 
amusements  favoured  introspection.  Thinkers  wel- 
comed release  from  the  tyranny  of  books.  Lovers 
of  art  were  glad  of  the  prospect  of  a  broader  culture 
than  was  possible  in  the  shadow  of  Puritanism. 
Reformers  seized  the  opportunity  of  appealing  from 
pro-slavery  texts  and  constitutions  to  a  higher  law. 
Friends  of  religion  hoped  that  the  gloom  of  the 
popular  theology  would  be  dispelled  by  a  new 
revelation  coming  direct  from  God  into  their  souls. 

IL  A  mighty  declaration  of  religious  independ- 
ence was  made  on  July   15,    1838,  when  Emerson 


Emerson  127 

said  to  the  Unitarian  ministers:  "  The  need  was 
never  greater  of  new  revelation  than  now."  "  It 
cannot  be  received  at  second  hand."  There  has 
been  "  noxious  exaggeration  about  the  person  of 
Jesus."  "  Cast  aside  all  conformity,  and  acquaint 
men  at  first  hand  with  Deity."  "  The  old  is  for 
slaves."  Much  controversy  was  called  out  by  the 
publication  of  this  address.  It  was  preceded  by 
another  in  which  educated  men  were  told  that  they 
must  believe  themselves  "  inspired  by  the  Divine 
Soul  which  inspires  all  men."  "  There  can  be  no 
scholar  without  the  heroic  mind."  "  Each  age 
must  write  its  own  books."  Emerson  had  also  sent 
out  in  1836  a  pamphlet  entitled  Nature  ;  and  one  of 
its  first  readers  has  called  it  "  an  '  open  sesame' 
to  all  thought,  and  the  first  we  had  ever  had." 
Still  more  important  were  the  essays  on  "  Heroism  " 
and  "  Self-Reliance,"  which  were  part  of  a  volume 
published  in  1841.  Then  Emerson's  readers  were 
awakened  from  the  torpor  of  submission  to  popular 
clergymen  and  politicians  by  the  stern  words: 
"  Whoso  would  be  a  man  must  be  a  nonconform- 
ist." "  Insist  on  yourself:  never  imitate."  "  The 
soul  looketh  steadily  forwards."  "It  is  no  fol- 
lower: it  never  appeals  from  itself."  The  Russian 
Government  was  so  well  aware  of  the  value  of  these 
essays  as  to  imprison  a  student  for  borrowing  them. 
A  Lord  Mayor  in  England  acknowledged  that  their 
influence  had  raised  him  out  of  poverty  and  ob- 
scurity. Bradlaugh's  first  impulse  to  do  battle  for 
freedom  in  religion  came  from  Emerson's  exhorta- 
tion to  self-reliance. 

The  author's  influence  was  all  the  greater,  because 


128     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

he  was  already  an  impressive  lecturer.  There  was 
much  more  demand,  both  in  England  and  in  Amer- 
ica, between  1830  and  i860,  for  literary  culture  and 
useful  knowledge  than  was  supplied  by  the  maga- 
zines and  public  libraries.  The  Americans  were 
peculiarly  destitute  of  public  amusements.  Danc- 
ing, playing  cards,  and  going  to  the  theatre  were 
still  under  the  ban;  and  there  was  not  yet  culture 
enough  for  concerts  to  be  popular.  There  was  at 
the  same  time  much  more  interest,  especially  in 
New  England,  in  the  anti-slavery  movement  than 
has  been  called  out  for  later  reforms;  for  these  have 
been  much  less  picturesque.  The  power  with  which 
Phillips  and  Parker  pleaded  for  the  slave  was  enough 
to  make  lectures  popular;  but  I  have  known  courses 
attended,  even  in  1855,  by  young  people  who  went 
merely  because  there  was  nowhere  else  to  go,  and 
who  came  away  in  blissful  ignorance  of  the  subjects. 
Deeper  than  all  other  needs  lay  that  of  a  live  re- 
ligion. Emerson  was  among  the  first  to  satisfy  this 
demand.  His  earliest  lecture,  in  1833,  took  a 
scientific  subject,  as  was  then  customary;  but  he 
soon  found  that  he  had  the  best  possible  opportun- 
ity for  declaring  that  "  From  within,  or  from  be- 
hind, a  light  shines  through  upon  things  and  makes 
us  aware  that  we  are  nothing,  but  the  light  is  all." 
Invitations  were  frequent  as  early  as  1844,  though 
the  audience  was  usually  small;  and  his  genius  be- 
came generally  recognised  after  his  return,  in  1848, 
from  a  visit  to  England.  There  scholarship  was 
high  enough  to  give  him,  as  early  as  1844,  thou- 
sands of  readers  for  that  little  book  on  Nature,  of 
which  only  a  few  hundred  copies  had  been  sold  in 


Emerson  129 

America.  Invitations  to  lecture  came  from  all  parts 
of  Great  Britain,  and  in  such  numbers  that  many 
had  to  be  declined.  The  aristocracy  of  rank  as  well 
as  of  intellect  helped  to  crowd  the  halls  in  Man- 
chester, Edinburgh,  and  London.  Once  at  least, 
he  had  more  than  two  thousand  hearers.  The  news- 
papers reported  his  lectures  at  such  length  that 
much  of  his  time  was  spent  in  writing  new  ones. 
He  had  not  intended  to  be  anyone's  guest;  but  in- 
vitations were  so  numerous  and  cordial,  that  he 
could  seldom  escape  into  solitude.  He  wrote  to 
his  wife,  "  My  reception  here  is  really  a  premium 
on  authorship." 

Success  in  England  increased  his  opportunities,  as 
well  as  his  courage,  to  speak  in  America.  Invita- 
tions grew  more  and  more  frequent,  and  compensa- 
tion more  liberal.  His  thrilling  voice  was  often 
heard,  thenceforth,  in  the  towns  and  cities  of  New 
England.  In  1850,  he  went  to  lecture  at  St.  Louis, 
and  met  audience  after  audience  on  the  way.  Dur- 
ing the  next  twenty  years  he  spent  at  least  two 
months  of  discomfort,  every  winter,  lecturing  in 
city  after  city  throughout  the  free  States.  Every- 
where he  gave  his  best  thought,  and  as  much  as 
possible  of  it,  in  every  lecture.  Logical  order 
seemed  less  important;  and  he  spent  much  more 
time  in  condensing  than  in  arranging  the  sentences 
selected  from  his  note-books.  Strikingly  original 
ideas,  which  had  flashed  upon  him  at  various  times, 
were  presented  one  after  another  as  if  each  were 
complete  in  itself.  The  intermi.xture  of  quotations 
and  anecdotes  did  not  save  the  general  character 
from   becoming   often   chaotic ;  but   the  chaos  was 


130     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

ahvays  full  of  power  and  light.  Star  after  star  rose 
rapidly  upon  his  astonished  and  delighted  hearers. 
They  sometimes  could  not  understand  him ;  but 
they  always  felt  lifted  up.  Parker  described  him  in 
1839  ^s  pouring  forth  "  a  stream  of  golden  atoms  of 
thought";  and  Lowell  called  him  some  twenty 
years  later  "  the  most  steadily  attractive  lecturer  in 
America."  These  young  men  and  others  of  like 
aspirations  walked  long  distances  to  visit  him  or 
hear  him  speak  in  public.  The  influence  of  his 
lectures  increased  that  of  the  books  into  which  they 
finally  crystallised.  In  i860,  he  had  made  his  way 
of  thinking  so  common  that  his  Conduct  of  Life  had 
a  sale  of  2500  copies  in  two  days.  His  readers  were 
nowhere  numerous,  outside  of  Boston ;  but  they 
were,  and  are,  to  be  found  everywhere. 

Lovers  of  liberty  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic 
were  brought  into  closer  fellowship  by  books  singu- 
larly free  from  anti-British  prejudice;  but  he  was  so 
thoroughly  American  that  he  declared,  even  in  Lon- 
don, that  the  true  aristocracy  must  be  founded  on 
merit,  for  "  Birth  has  been  tried  and  failed."  This 
lecture  was  often  repeated,  and  was  finally  given  in 
188 1  as  his  last  word  in  public.  Introspective  and 
retiring  habits  kept  him  for  some  time  from  engag- 
ing actively  in  the  reforms  which  were  in  full  blast 
about  1840;  but  Lowell  said  he  was  "  the  sleeping 
partner  who  has  supplied  a  great  part  of  their  capi- 
tal." His  words  about  slavery  were  few  and  cold 
before  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  was  passed  in  1850. 
Indignation  at  this  command  to  kidnap  made  him 
publicly  advise  his  neighbours  to  break  the  wicked 
law.      He  spoke  in  support  of  a  Free  Soil  candidate 


Emerson  131 

in  1852,  and  for  the  Republican  party  in  1854;  but 
John  Brown  called  out  much  more  of  his  praise 
than  any  other  abolitionist.  The  attempt  of  the 
Garrisonians  to  persuade  the  North  to  suffer  the 
seceders  to  depart  in  peace  won  his  active  aid  ;  but 
the  speech  which  he  tried  to  deliver  on  their  plat- 
form, early  in  1861,  was  made  inaudible  by  a  mob 
of  enthusiasts  for  maintaining  the  Union  by  war. 
He  rejoiced  in  emancipation  ;  but  it  was  not 
achieved  until  he  had  lost  much  of  his  mental 
vigour.  This,  in  fact,  was  at  its  height  between 
1840  and  J 850.  His  last  volumes  were  in  great  part 
made  up  of  his  earliest  writings.  There  was  no 
change  in  his  opinions;  and  his  address  in  1838  was 
fully  approved  by  him  when  he  re-read  it  shortly 
before  his  death. 

His  most  useful  contribution  to  the  cause  of  re- 
form was  the  characteristic  theory  which  underlies 
all  he  wrote.  In  the  essays  published  in  1841,  he 
states  it  thus:  "  Every  man  knows ■  that  to  his 
involuntary  perceptions  a  perfect  faith  is  due." 
"  We  know  truth  when  we  see  it."  From 
first  to  last  he  held  that  "  Books  are  for  the  scholar's 
idle  hours."  .  .  .  "  A  sound  mind  will  derive 
its  principles  from  insight."  .  .  .  "  Truth  is 
always  present;  it  only  needs  to  lift  the  iron  lids  of 
the  mind's  eye  to  read  its  oracles."  This  was  a 
doctrine  much  more  revolutionary  than  Luther's. 
Emerson  proclaimed  independence  of  the  Bible  as 
well  as  of  the  Church.  His  innate  reverence  was 
expressed  in  such  sayings  as  "  The  relations  of  the 
soul  to  the  divine  spirit  are  so  pure,  that  it  is  pro- 
fane   to    interpose    helps."      Love    of   spontaneity 


132      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

made  him  declare  that  "  Creeds  are  a  disease  of  the 
intellect."  It  was  in  his  indignation  at  the  Fugitive- 
Slave  Law  that  he  said,  "  We  should  not  forgive  the 
clergy  for  taking  on  every  issue  the  immoral  side." 
His  treatment  of  religious  institutions  was  not  per- 
fectly consistent ;  but  the  aim  of  all  his  writings  was 
to  encourage  heroic  thought.  He  wrote  the  Gospel 
of  Nonconformity.  Personal  knowledge  of  his  in- 
fluence justified  Bishop  Huntington  in  saying  that 
he  has  "  done  more  to  unsettle  the  faith  of  the 
educated  young  men  of  our  age  and  country  in  the 
Christianity  of  the  Bible  than  any  other  twenty 
men  combined." 

How  desirous  Emerson  was  to  have  the  inner 
light  obeyed  promptly  and  fully  may  be  judged 
from  his  describing  his  own  habit  of  writing  as  fol- 
lows:  "  I  would  not  degrade  myself  by  casting 
about  for  a  thought,  nor  by  waiting  for  it."  .  .  . 
"  If  it  come  not  spontaneously,  it  comes  not  rightly 
at  all."  Much  of  the  peculiar  charm  of  his  books 
is  due  to  his  having  composed  them  thus.  Again 
and  again  he  says:  "  It  is  really  of  little  importance 
what  blunders  in  statement  we  make,  so  only  that 
we  make  no  wilful  departure  from  the  truth." 
"  Why  should  I  give  up  my  thought,  be- 
cause I  cannot  answer  an  objection  to  it  ?  " 
"  With  consistency,  a  great  soul  has  simply  nothing 
to  do."  ..."  Speak  what  you  think  now  in 
hard  words,  and  to-morrow  speak  what  to-morrow 
thinks  in  hard  words  again,  though  it  contradict 
everything  you  said  to-day."  .  .  .  "I  hope  in 
these  days  we  have  heard  the  last  of  conformity  and 
consistency.     Let  the  words  be  "    .    .    .    "ridiculous 


Emerson  133 

henceforward."  This  is  not  meant  for  mere  theory. 
We  are  told  often  that  "  Virtue  is  the  spontaneity 
of  the  will."  ..."  Our  spontaneous  action  is 
always  the  best."  .  .  .  "  The  only  right  is 
what  is  after  my  own  constitution,  the  only  wrong 
what  is  against  it." 

III.  The  passages  quoted  in  the  last  paragraph 
are  of  great  importance;  for  they  did  more  than  any 
others  to  abolish  slavery.  Its  defenders  appealed 
to  the  Bible  as  confidently  as  to  the  national  Con- 
stitution ;  but  the  Garrisonians  declared  with  Emer- 
son, that  "  The  highest  virtue  is  always  against  the 
law."  They  were  confident  that  they  knew  the 
truth  as  soon  as  they  saw  it,  and  had  no  need  to 
answer  objections.  The  same  faith  in  spontaneous 
impressions  inspired  the  suffragists,  of  whom  the 
next  chapter  will  give  some  account.  Agitations 
against  established  institutions  sprang  up  thickly 
under  the  first  step  of  Transcendentalism.  Church, 
State,  family  ties,  and  business  relations  seemed  all 
likely  to  be  broken  up.  Lowell  says  that  "  Every- 
body had  a  mission  (with  a  capital  M)  to  attend  to 
everybody  else's  business. "  .  .  .  "Conventions 
were  held  for  every  hitherto  inconceivable  purpose." 
"  Communities  were  established  where 
everything  was  to  be  in  common  but  common 
sense."  The  popular  authors  about  1840  were 
mostly  Transcendentalists;  and  nearly  every  Trans- 
cendentalist  was  a  Socialist.  Some  forty  commun- 
ities were  started  almost  simultaneously;  but  not 
one-half  lasted  through  the  second  year.  One  of 
the  first  failures  was  led  bv  a  man  who  had  been 


134     Liberty  In  the  Nineteenth  Century 

working  actively  against  slavery,  but  who  had  come 
to  think  that  the  only  way  to  attack  it  was  to  try  to 
do  away  with  all  private  property  whatever.  Brook 
Farm  lasted  half  a  dozen  years,  with  a  success  due 
partly  to  the  high  culture  of  the  inmates,  and  partly 
to  some  recognition  of  the  right  of  private  owner- 
ship. The  general  experience,  however,  was  that  a 
Transcendentalist  was  much  more  willing  to  make 
plans  for  other  people,  than  to  conform  in  his  own 
daily  life  to  regulations  proposed  by  anyone  else. 
The  very  multiplicity  of  the  reforms,  started  in  the 
light  of  the  new  philosophy,  did  much  to  prevent 
most  of  them  from  attaining  success.  We  have 
seen  how  slavery  was  abolished  ;  but  no  one  should 
regret  the  failure  of  most  of  the  Transcendentalist 
schemes. 

The  subsidence  of  Socialism  was  especially  fortun- 
ate on  account  of  the  frankness  with  which  matri- 
mony was  repudiated  by  the  system  most  in  vogue, 
that  of  Fourier.  He  had  followed  the  spontaneous' 
and  instinctive  impulses  of  man  with  the  utmost 
consistency.  Other  Socialists  have  been  more 
cautious;  but  the  problem  of  reconciling  family  ties 
with  communal  life  has  not  been  solved.  Some  of 
the  English  Transcendentalists  published  a  pam- 
phlet recommending  systematic  encouragement  of 
licentiousness;  and  an  American  philosopher,  who 
turned  Roman  Catholic  in  1844,  declared  that  free 
love  was  "  Transcendentalism  in  full  bloom."  The 
term  "  higher  law  "  was  used  to  support  the  pre- 
tence of  some  obligation  more  binding  than  mar- 
riage. A  free-love  convention  was  held  in  New 
York  about    1857;    and    very   lax   ideas  had    been 


I 


Emerson  135 

already  announced  by  active  apostles  of  spontaneity 
known  as  Spiritualists. 

No  writer  has  done  more  to  encourage  purity  of 
thought  than  Emerson.  His  life  was  stainless;  but 
perhaps  the  best  proof  of  this  is  his  saying,  "  Our 
moral  nature  is  vitiated  by  any  interference  of  our 
will  " ;  and  again,  "  If  the  single  man  plant  himself 
indomitably  on  his  instincts,  and  there  abide,  the 
huge  world  will  come  round  to  him."  No  man  ever 
wrote  thus  who  was  not  either  notoriously  corrupt 
or  singularly  innocent.  Policemen  and  jailers  exist 
largely  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  people  from 
planting  themselves  on  their  instincts — for  instance, 
those  which  lead  to  theft,  drunkenness,  and  murder. 
Socialism  would  perhaps  be  practicable  if  industry 
were  as  natural  as  laziness.  Almost  all  moralists 
have  thought  it  necessary  to  insist  on  constant  in- 
terference with  the  instincts.  So  earnest  and  able 
a  Transcendentalist  as  Miss  Cobbe  gives  these  defin- 
itions in  her  elaborate  treatise  on  Intuitive  Morals  : 

Happiness  is  the  gratification  of  all  the  desires  of 
our  nature."  "  Virtue  is  the  renunciation  of  such 
of  them  as  are  forbidden  by  the  moral  law."  Theo- 
dore Parker  insisted  on  the  duty  of  subordinating 

the  low  qualities  to  the  higher,"  but  Emerson 
held,  as  already  mentioned,  that  "  Virtue  is  the 
spontaneity  of  the  will." 

Such  language  was  largely  due  to  his  perception 
that  all  activity,  however  innocent,  of  thought  and 
feeling  had  been  too  much  repressed  by  the  Puri- 
tanical churches,  in  whose  shadow  he  was  brought 
up.  The  same  mistake  was  made  in  the  Dark 
Ages;  and   the   reaction  from  that   asceticism   was 


136     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

notorious  during  the  Renaissance.  The  early  Unit- 
arians overrated  human  nature  in  their  hostihty  to 
the  Trinitarians,  who  underrated  it ;  and  Emerson 
went  beyond  his  original  associates  in  the  Unitarian 
ministry  because  he  was  more  TranscendentaL  The 
elevation  of  his  own  character  encouraged  him  to 
hope  that  our  higher  qualities  are  so  strong  as  to 
need  only  freedom  to  be  enabled  to  keep  all  impure 
desire  in  subjection.  It  was  a  marked  change  of 
tone  when  in  1876  he  allowed  these  words  to  be 
printed  in  one  of  his  books:  "  Self-control  is  the 
rule.  You  have  in  you  there  a  noisy,  sensual  sav- 
age which  you  are  to  keep  down,  and  turn  all  his 
strength  to  beauty."  Similar  passages,  especially 
a  censure  of  the  pruriency  of  Fourierism,  occur  in 
essays  which  were  probably  written  some  years 
earlier,  but  were  not  published  until  after  his  death. 
Most  of  the  Transcendentalists  have  fortunately 
acknowledged  the  duty  of  self-control  much  more 
plainly  and  readily.  It  is  a  fair  question  whether 
they  were  more  consistent.  How  does  anyone 
know  which  of  his  instincts  and  impulses  to  control 
and  which  to  cultivate  ?  What  better  light  has  he 
than  is  given  either  by  his  own  experience  or  by 
that  of  his  parents  and  other  teachers  ?  I  acknow- 
ledge the  power  of  conscience ;  but  its  dictates  differ 
so  much  in  different  individuals  as  to  be  plainly  due 
to  early  education.  Thus  even  a  Transcendentalist 
has  to  submit  himself  to  experience;  as  he  would 
not  do  if  it  were  really  transcended  by  his  philo- 
sophy, 

Emerson  himself  was  singularly  fortunate  in  his 
"  involuntary  perceptions,"      Those  of  most  men 


Emerson  137 

are  dark  with  superstition  and  prejudice.  It  is 
what  we  have  heard  earhest  and  oftenest  that 
recurs  most  spontaneously.  If  all  mankind  had 
continued  satisfied  to  "  trust  the  instinct  to  the  end 
though  it  can  render  no  reason,"  we  should  still  be- 
lieve in  the  divine  right  of  kings,  and  the  suprem- 
acy of  evil  spirits.  There  would  have  been  very 
little  persecution  if  men  could  have  known  truth 
when  they  saw  it.  Parker  believed  devoutly  in  the 
intuitions,  but  he  said  that  Emerson  exaggerated 
their  accuracy  to  such  an  extent  that  he  "  discour- 
ages   hard    and    continuous   thought." 

Some  of  his  followers  will  be  more  faithful  than 
he  to  the  false  principles  which  he  lays  down,  and 
will  think  themselves  wise  because  they  do  not 
study,  and  inspired  because  they  say  what  out- 
rages common  sense."  The  danger  of  following 
instinctive  impressions  in  regard  to  the  currency  has 
been  shown  in  recent  American  politics.  Anyone 
who  is  familiar  with  scientific  methods  will  see 
where  Emerson's  failed.  It  is  true  that  he  prized 
highly  many  of  the  results  of  science,  especially  the 
theory  of  evolution  as  it  was  taught  by  Lamarck 
and  other  forerunners  of  Darwin.  His  inability  to 
see  the  value  of  investigation  and  verification  is  dis- 
closed plainly;  and  he  preferred  to  have  people  try 
to  "  build  science  on  ideas."  He  acknowledged 
that  too  much  time  was  given  to  Latin  and  Greek 
in  college;  but  his  wishes  in  regard  to  study  of  the 
sciences  were  so  old-fashioned  as  to  call  out  a  re- 
monstrance from  Agassiz. 

IV.    How  little  scientific  culture  there  was  before 


138     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

i860  may  be  judged  from  the  rapid  growth  of 
Spirituahsm.  Transcendentahsm  had  shown  tre- 
mendous strength  in  helping  people  escape  from  the 
old  churches;  but  it  was  of  little  use  in  building 
new  ones.  Churches  exist  for  the  express  purpose 
of  enabling  believers  in  a  common  faith  to  unite  in 
public  worship.  No  society  could  be  so  holy  as 
solitude  to  a  sincere  Transcendentalist ;  and  the  be- 
liefs of  his  neighbours  seemed  much  less  sacred  than 
his  own  peculiar  intuitions.  Exceptional  eloquence 
might  make  him  pastor  of  a  large  society;  but  it 
began  to  decline  when  he  ceased  to  speak.  Trans- 
cendentalism was  excellent  material  for  weather- 
cocks, but  it  had  to  be  toughened  by  adulteration 
with  baser  metal  before  it  supplied  any  solid  founda- 
tion for  a  new  temple. 

Most  of  the  people  who  had  lost  faith  in  the  old 
churches  were  longing  after  some  better  way  of 
receiving  knowledge  about  the  heavenly  world.  Mill- 
ions of  Americans  and  Europeans  rejoiced  to  hear 
that  spirits  had  begun  to  communicate  by  mysteri- 
ous raps  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  on  the  last  day  of 
March,  1848.  Messages  from  the  departed  were 
soon  received  in  many  places;  but  the  one  thing 
needful  was  that  the  room  be  filled  with  believers; 
and  a  crowded  hall  was  peculiarly  likely  to  be 
favoured  with  strange  sounds  and  sights.  Here 
was  the  social  element  necessary  for  founding  a  new 
religion.  It  appealed  as  confidently  as  its  rivals  to 
miracles  and  prophecies,  while  it  had  the  peculiar 
attraction  of  being  preached  mainly  by  young 
women.  Instinctive  impulses  were  regarded  as 
revelations  from  the  spirit-land,  but  not  considered 


Emerson  139 

infallible  except  by  the  very  superstitious.  The 
highest  authority  of  an  intelligent  Spiritualist  has 
usually  been  his  own  individual  intuition.  Some  of 
the  earliest  lectures  on  that  platform  had  little  faith 
in  anything  but  science,  and  put  their  main  strength 
into  announcing  those  revelations  of  geology  which 
have  dethroned  Genesis.  One  of  the  first  teachers 
of  evolution  in  America  was  a  Spiritualist  named 
Denton,  who  held  a  public  debate  in  Ohio,  in  1858, 
when  he  defended  the  theory  of  man's  gradual  de- 
velopment from  lower  animals  against  a  preacher 
named  Garfield,  who  became  President  of  the 
United  States.  Some  eminent  scientists  have  be- 
come converts  to  Spiritualism  ;  but  its  general  literat- 
ure has  shown  little  influence  from  scientific  methods 
of  thought. 

The  advocates  of  the  new  religion  have  owed 
much  of  their  success  to  impassioned  eloquence. 
Opposition  to  Christianity  has  been  expressed 
boldly  and  frequently.  Girls  of  seventeen  have 
declared,  before  large  audiences,  that  all  the  creeds 
and  ceremonies  of  the  churches  are  mere  idolatry. 
Among  the  earliest  communications  which  were 
published  as  dictated  by  angels  in  the  new  dispen- 
sation were  denials  of  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  and 
denunciations  of  the  clergy  as  "  the  deadliest  foes 
of  progress."  An  eminent  Unitarian  divine  de- 
clared in  1856,  that  "  the  doctrines  professedly 
revealed  by  a  majority  of  the  spirits,  whose  words 
we  have  seen  quoted,  are  at  open  war  with  the  New 
Testament."  Some  moderate  Spiritualists  have 
kept  in  friendly  relations  with  liberal  churches;  but 
many  others  have  been  in  active  co-operation  with 


140     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

the  most  aggressive  of  unbelievers  in  religion.  The 
speakers  at  the  Spiritualist  anniversary  in  1897  said 
to  one  another,  "  You  and  I  are  Christs,  just  as 
Jesus  was, ' '  and  claimed  plainly  that ' '  our  religion 
was  distinct  froin  every  "  Christian  denomination." 
Spiritualists  have  all,  I  think,  been  in  favour  of 
woman  suffrage;  and  the  majority  were  abolition- 
ists. Some  of  Garrison's  companions,  however, 
deserted  in  the  heat  of  the  battle,  saying  that  there 
was  nothing  more  to  do,  for  the  spirits  would  free 
the  slaves.  Anti-slavery  lecturers  in  the  North-west 
found  themselves  crowded  out  of  halls  and  school- 
houses  by  trance-speakers  and  mediums.  One  of 
the  most  eminent  of  converts  made  by  the  latter. 
Judge  Edmonds,  was  prominent  among  the  defend- 
ers of  slavery  in  the  free  States. 

Freedom  from  any  definite  creed  or  rigid  code  of 
morality  joined  with  the  constant  supply  of  ever- 
varying  miracles  in  attracting  converts.  Those  in 
the  United  States  were  soon  estimated  in  millions. 
Spiritualism  swept  over  Great  Britain  so  rapidly 
that  it  was  declared  by  the  Wcstmmster  Reviezu  to 
give  quite  as  much  promise  as  Christianity  had 
done,  at  the  same  age,  of  becoming  a  universal  re- 
ligion. No  impartial  observer  expects  that  now. 
Believers  are  still  to  be  found  in  all  parts  of  Europe 
and  South  America,  and  they  are  especially  numer- 
ous in  the  United  States.  Proselytes  do  not  seem 
to  be  coming  in  anywhere  very  thickly;  and  the 
number  of  intelligent  men  and  women  who  have 
renounced  Spiritualism,  after  a  brief  trial,  is  known 
to  be  large.  The  new  religion  has  followed  the  old 
ones  into  the   policy  of  standing  on  the  defensive. 


Emerson  141 

One  instance  of  this  is  the  opposition  to  investiga- 
tion. A  Mediums*  National  Defence  Association 
was  in  open  operation  before  1890.  A  leading 
Spiritualist  paper  suggested  in  1876,  that  the  would- 
be  inquirer  should  be  "  tied  securely  hand  and  foot, 
and  placed  in  a  strong  iron  cage,  with  a  rope  or 
small  chain  put  tightly  about  his  neck,  and  fastened 
to  an  iron  ring  in  the  wall."  Early  in  1897,  some 
young  men  who  claimed  to  have  exposed  an  impos- 
tor, before  a  large  audience  in  the  Spiritualist  Tem- 
ple in  Boston,  were  prosecuted  by  his  admirers  on 
the  charge  of  having  disturbed  public  worship. 

V.  During  the  last  quarter  of  the  century,  free 
love  has  been  much  less  prominent  than  before  in 
Spiritualistic  teachings ;  but  the  only  Americans  who 
were  able  to  proclaim  liberty  without  encouraging 
self-indulgence,  prior  to  1870,  were  the  logical  and 
scholarly  Transcendentalists.  Theodore  Parker,  for 
instance,  is  to  be  reckoned  among  the  followers  of 
Hegel  rather  than  of  Schelling;  for  he  tried  by  hard 
study  and  deep  thought  to  build  up  a  consistent 
system  of  religion  and  morality  by  making  deduc- 
tions from  a  few  central  principles  which  he  revered 
as  great  primary  intuitions,  held  always  and  every- 
where sacred.  His  faith  in  his  ideas  of  God,  duty, 
and  immortality  was  very  firm ;  and  he  did  his  best 
to  live  and  think  accordingly.  He  began  to  preach 
in  1836,  the  year  of  the  publication  of  Emerson's 
first  book,  but  soon  found  his  work  hindered  by  an 
idolatry  of  the  Bible,  then  prevalent  even  among 
Unitarians.  Familiarity  with  German  scholarship 
enabled  him  to  teach  his  people  to  think  rationally. 


142      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

His  brethren  in  the  Unitarian  ministry  were  alarmed  ; 
and  a  sermon  which  he  preached  in  Boston  against 
the  mediatorship  of  Jesus  made  it  impossible  for 
him  to  occupy  an  influential  pulpit.  The  lectures 
which  he  delivered  that  year  in  a  hall  in  the  city, 
and  published  in  1842,  won  the  support  of  many 
seekers  for  a  new  religion.  They  voted  that  he 
should  "  have  a  chance  to  be  heard  in  Boston  "; 
and  on  February  16,  1845,  he  preached  in  a  large 
hall  to  what  soon  became  a  permanent  and  famous 
congregation. 

Thither,  as  Parker  said,  he  *'  came  to  build  up 
piety  and  morality ;  to  pull  down  only  what  cum- 
bered the  ground."  His  main  purpose  to  the  last 
was  to  teach  "  the  naturalness  of  religion,  "  the 
adequacy  of  man  for  his  functions  "  without  priestly 
aid,  and,  most  important  of  all,  that  superiority  of 
the  real  Deity  to  the  pictures  drawn  in  the  orthodox 
creeds,  which  Parker  called  "  the  infinite  perfection 
of  God."  He  was  singularly  successful  in  awaken- 
ing the  spirit  of  religion  in  men  who  were  living 
without  it,  but  the  plainness  with  which  he  stated 
his  faith,  in  sermons  which  had  a  large  circulation, 
called  out  many  attacks.  Prayers  were  publicly 
offered  up  in  Boston,  asking  that  the  Lord  would 
"  put  a  hook  in  this  man's  jaws,  so  that  he  may  not 
be  able  to  preach,  or  else  remove  him  out  of  the 
way  and  let  his  influence  die  with  him."  No  con- 
troversy hindered  his  labouring  systematically  for 
the  moral  improvement  of  his  hearers,  who  some- 
times amounted  to  three  thousand.  His  sermons 
are  full  of  definite  appeals  for  self-control  and  self- 
culture  ;  and  his  personal  interest  in  every  individual 


Emerson  143 

who  could  be  helped  was  so  active  that  he  soon  had 
seven  thousand  names  on  his  pastoral  visiting  list. 
Appeals  for  advice  came  from  strangers  at  a  dis- 
tance, and  were  never  neglected. 

Not  one  of  the  great  national  sins,  however  popu- 
lar, escaped  his  severe  rebuke;  and  he  became 
prominent  as  early  as  1845  among  the  preachers 
against  slavery.  He  was  active  in  many  ways  as 
an  abolitionist,  but  was  not  a  disunionist.  He  sel- 
dom quitted  his  pulpit  without  speaking  for  the 
slave;  and  every  phase  of  the  anti-slavery  move- 
ment is  illustrated  in  his  published  works.  Pro- 
slavery  politicians  were  as  bitter  as  orthodox 
clergymen  against  him ;  and  he  describes  himself 
as  "  continually  fired  upon  for  many  years  from  the 
barroom  and  pulpit."  His  resistance  to  the  Fugi- 
tive Slave  Law  caused  him  to  be  arrested  and  pro- 
secuted, in  company  with  Wendell  Phillips,  by  the 
ofificials  of  the  national  Government. 

Desire  to  awaken  the  people  to  the  danger  that 
lay  in  the  growth  of  the  national  sin  made  him 
begin  to  lecture  in  1844.  Invitations  flowed  in 
freely  ;  and  he  said,  after  he  had  broken  down  under 
the  joint  burden  of  overwork  and  of  exposure  in 
travelling:  "  Since  1848,  I  have  lectured  eighty  or  a 
hundred  times  each  year,  in  every  Northern  State 
east  of  the  Mississippi, — once  also  in  a  slave  State 
and  on  slavery  itself."  This  was  his  favourite  sub- 
ject, but  he  never  missed  an  opportunity  of  encour- 
aging mtellectual  independence;  and  he  found  he 
could  say  what  he  pleased.  The  total  number  of 
hearers  exceeded  half  a  million ;  among  them  were 
the  most  influential  men  in  the  North  ;  and  he  never 


144      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

failed  to  make  himself  understood.  No  one  else 
did  so  much  to  develop  that  love  of  the  people  for 
Union  and  Liberty  which  secured  emancipation. 
His  works  have  no  such  brilliancy  as  Emerson's; 
but  they  burned  at  the  time  of  need  with  a  much 
more  warm  and  steady  light.  No  words  did  more 
to  melt  the  chains  of  millions  of  slaves.  No  excess 
of  individualism  made  him  shrink  back,  like  Emer- 
son, from  joining  the  abolitionists;  or  discredit 
them,  as  Thoreau  did,  by  publicly  renouncing  his 
allegiance  to  Massachusetts  in  1854,  when  that  State 
stood  foremost  on  the  side  of  freedom. 

The  account  of  a  solitary  life  in  the  woods,  which 
Thoreau  published  that  year,  has  done  much  to  en- 
courage independence  of  public  opinion  ;  and  Ameri- 
cans of  that  generation  needed  sadly  to  be  told  that 
they  took  too  little  amusement,  especially  out  of 
doors,  and  made  too  great  haste  to  get  rich.  Their 
history,  however,  like  that  of  the  Swiss,  Scotch, 
and  ancient  Athenians,  proves  that  it  is  the  indus- 
trious, enterprising,  money-making  nations  that  are 
best  fitted  for  maintaining  free  institutions.  As  for 
individual  independence  of  thought  and  action,  the 
average  man  will  enjoy  much  more  of  it,  while  he 
keeps  himself  in  comfortable  circumstances  by  regu- 
lar but  not  excessive  work,  than  he  could  if  he  were 
to  follow  the  advice  of  an  author  who  prided  him- 
self on  not  working  more  than  "  about  six  weeks  in  a 
year,"  and  on  enduring  privations  which  apparently 
shortened  his  days, 

Thoreau's  self-denial  was  heroic;  but  he  some- 
times failed  to  see  the  right  of  his  neighbours  to  in- 
dulge more  expensive  tastes  than   his  own.     The 


Emerson  145 

necessary  conditions  of  health  and  comfort  for  dif- 
ferent individuals  vary  much  more  than  he  realised. 
Many  a  would-be  reformer  still  complains  of  the 
"  luxury  "  of  people  who  find  physical  rest  or  men- 
tal culture  in  innocent  ways,  not  particularly  to  his 
own  fancy.  Such  censures  are  really  intolerant. 
They  are  survivals  of  that  meddlesome  disposition 
which  has  sadly  restricted  freedom  of  trade,  amuse- 
ment, and  worship. 

We  have  had  only  one  Emerson  ;  but  many  schol- 
arly Transcendentalists  have  laboured  to  construct 
the  new  morality  needed  in  the  nineteenth  century. 
Parker's  work  has  peculiar  interest,  because  done  in 
a  terrible  emergency ;  but  others  have  toiled  as 
profitably  though  less  famously.  The  search  after 
fundamental  intuitions  has  led  to  a  curious  variety 
of  statements  which  agree  only  in  the  assumption 
of  infallibility;  but  the  result  has  been  the  general 
agreement  of  liberal  preachers  in  teaching  a  system 
of  ethics  at  once  free  from  superstition,  bigotry,  or 
asceticism,  and  at  the  same  time  vigorous  enough 
to  repress  impure  desire  and  encourage  active  phil- 
anthropy. Theology  has  improved  in  liberality,  as 
well  as  in  claiming  less  prominence.  Thus  the 
clergy  have  come  into  much  more  friendly  relations 
with  the  philosophers  than  in  the  middle  of  the 
century.  Our  popular  preachers  quote  Emerson ; 
but  really  they  follow,  though  often  unconsciously, 
the  methods  of  Hegel  and  Kant.  This  increases 
their  sympathy  with  Parker,  who  has  the  advantage 
over  Emerson  of  having  believed  strongly  in  per- 
sonal immortality.  His  works  are  circulated  by  the 
very  denomination  which  cast  him  out.     The  most 


146     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

popular  preachers  in  many  sects  openly  accept  him 
and  Emerson  among  their  highest  authorities. 
Transcendentalism  has  become  the  foundation  of 
liberal  Christianity. 

This  agreement  is  not,  however,  necessary  and 
may  not  be  permanent.  Hegel's  great  success  was 
in  bringing  forward  the  old  dogmas  with  new  claims 
to  infallibility.  When  some  of  his  disciples  showed 
that  his  methods  were  equally  well  adapted  for  the 
destruction  of  orthodoxy,  Schelling  gave  his  last 
lectures  in  its  defence.  The  singular  fitness  of 
traditions  for  acceptance  as  intuitions  has  been 
proved,  late  in  the  century,  by  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Cook  in  Boston  as  well  as  by  many  speakers  at  the 
Concord  School  of  Philosophy.  The  reactionary 
tendency  is  already  so  strong  that  it  may  yet  be- 
come predominant.  We  must  not  forget  that 
Shelley  called  himself  an  atheist,  or  that  among 
Hegel's  most  famous  followers  were  Strauss  and 
Renan.  Who  can  say  whether  unbelief,  orthodoxy, 
or  liberal  Christianity  is  the  legitimate  outcome  of 
this  ubiquitous  philosophy  ? 

Transcendentalism  has  been  the  inspiration  of  the 
century.  Its  influence  has  been  mighty  in  behalf 
of  political  liberty  and  social  progress.  But  there 
was  no  inconsistency  in  Hegel's  opposing  the  edu- 
cation of  women,  and  denying  the  possibility  of  a 
great  republic,  or  in  Carlyle's  defending  absolute 
monarchy  and  chattel  slavery,  or  in  Parker's  suc- 
cessor in  Boston  trying  to  justify  the  Russian  des- 
potism. Transcendentalism  is  a  swivel-gun,  which 
can  be  fired  easily  in  any  direction.  Perhaps  it  can 
be  used  most  easily  against  science.     The  difference 


Emerson  147 

in  methods,  of  course,  is  irreconcilable,  as  is  seen  in 
Emerson;  and  the  brilliant  results  attained  by  Her- 
bert Spencer  have  been  sadly  disparaged  by  leading 
Transcendentalists  in  the  conventions  of  the  Free 
Religious  Association,  as  well  as  in  sessions  of  the 
Concord  School  of  Philosophy. 

VI.  The  necessary  tendency  of  Transcendentalism 
may  be  seen  in  the  agitation  against  vivisection, 
vi'hich  was  begun  in  1863  by  Miss  Cobbe.  She  was 
aided  by  Carlyle,  Browning,  Ruskin,  Lecky,  Mar- 
tineau,  and  other  Transcendentalists,  one  of  whom, 
Rev.  W.  H.  Channing,  had  been  prominent  in 
America  about  1850.  Most  of  the  active  anti- 
vivisectionists,  however,  belong  to  the  sex  which 
has  been  peculiarly  ready  to  adopt  unscientific 
methods  of  thought.  It  is  largely  due  to  women 
with  a  taste  for  metaphysics  or  theology  that  the 
agitation  still  goes  on  in  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States. 

Attempts  ought  certainly  to  be  made  to  prevent 
torture  of  animals  by  inexperienced  students,  or  by 
teachers  who  merely  wish  to  illustrate  the  working 
of  well-known  laws.  There  ought  to  be  little  diffi- 
culty in  securing  the  universal  adoption  of  such 
statutes  as  were  passed  by  Parliament  in  1876.  Vivi- 
section was  then  forbidden,  except  when  carried  out 
for  the  purpose  of  important  discoveries,  by  com- 
petent investigators  duly  licensed,  and  in  regular 
laboratories.  It  was  further  required  that  complete 
protection  against  suffering  pain  be  given  by  anaes- 
thetics, though  these  last  could  be  dispensed  with 
in  exceptional  cases  covered  by  a   special   license. 


148     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

The  animal  must  at  all  events  be  killed  as  soon  as 
the  experiment  was  over.  This  law  actually  put  a 
stop  to  attempts  to  find  some  antidote  to  the  poison 
of  the  cobra,  which  slays  thousands  of  Hindoos  an- 
nually. Professor  Ferrier,  who  was  discovering  the 
real  functions  of  various  parts  of  the  brain,  was  pro- 
secuted in  1 88 1  by  the  Anti-Vivisection  Society  for 
operating  without  a  license  upon  monkeys;  but  the 
charge  turned  out  to  be  false. 

The  real  question  since  1876  has  been  as  to 
Avhether  vivisection  should  be  tolerated  as  an  aid 
to  scientific  and  medical  discover3^  Darwin's  opin- 
ion on  this  point  is  all  the  more  valuable,  because 
he  hated  all  cruelty  to  animals.  In  April,  1881,  he 
wrote  to  The  Times  as  follows : 

"  I  know  that  physiology  cannot  possibly  progress  ex- 
cept by  means  of  experiments  on  living  animals;  and  I 
feel  the  deepest  conviction  that  he  who  retards  the  pro- 
gress of  physiology  commits  a  crime  against  mankind. 
No  one,  unless  he  is  grossly  ignorant  of  what 
science  has  done  for  mankind,  can  entertain  any  doubt 
of  the  incalculable  benefits  which  will  hereafter  be  de- 
rived from  physiology,  not  only  by  man  but  by  the  lower 
animals.  Look,  for  instance,  at  Pasteur's  results  in 
modifying  the  germs  of  the  most  malignant  diseases, 
from  which,  as  it  so  happens,  animals  will  in  the  first 
place  receive  more  relief  than  man.  Let  it  be  remem- 
bered how  many  lives,  and  what  a  fearful  amount  of 
suffering,  have  been  saved  by  the  knowledge  gained  of 
parasitic  worms,  through  the  experiments  of  Virchow 
and  others  upon  living  animals." 

Another  high  authority,  Carpenter,  says  that  vivi- 


1 


Emerson  149 

section  has  greatly  aided  physicians  in  curing  heart 
disease,  as  well  as  in  preventing  blood-poisoning  by 
taking  antiseptic  precautions.  Much  has  been 
learned  as  to  the  value  of  hypodermic  injections, 
and  also  of  bromide  of  potassium,  chloral,  salicylic 
acid,  cocaine,  amyl,  digitalis,  and  strychnia.  Some 
of  these  drugs  are  so  poisonous  that  they  would 
never  have  been  administered  to  human  beings  if 
they  could  not  have  been  tried  previously  on  the 
lower  animals.  The  experiments  in  question  have 
recently  assisted  in  curing  yellow  fever,  sunstroke, 
diabetes,  epilepsy,  erysipelas,  cholera,  consumption, 
and  trichinosis.  The  German  professors  of  medicine 
testified  in  a  body  that  vivisection  has  regenerated 
the  healing  art.  Similar  testimony  was  given  in 
188 1  by  the  three  thousand  members  of  the  Inter- 
national Medical  Congress;  and  the  British  Medical 
Association  has  taken  the  same  position. 

The  facts  are  so  plain  that  an  English  judge,  who 
was  a  vice-president  of  Miss  Cobbe's  society,  ad- 
mitted that  "  vivisection  enlarges  knowledge  "  ;  but 
he  condemned  it  as  "  displeasing  to  Almighty  God." 
It  was  said  to  go  "  hand  in  hand  with  atheism  "; 
and  several  of  the  Episcopalian  bishops,  together 
with  Cardinal  Manning,  opposed  it  as  irreligious. 

Transcendentalists  are  compelled  by  their  philo- 
sophy to  decide  on  the  morality  of  all  actions  solely 
by  the  inner  light,  and  not  permitted  to  pay  any 
attention  to  consequences.  Many  of  them  in  Eng- 
land and  America  agreed  to  demand  the  total  sup- 
pression of  vivisection,  "  ^en  should  it  chance  to 
prove  useful."  This  ground  was  taken  in  1877  by 
Miss  Cobbe's  society ;  and  she  declared,  five  years 


150     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

later,  in  The  Fortnightly,  that  she  was  determined 
"  to  stop  the  torture  of  animals,  a  grave  moral 
offence,  with  the  consequences  of  which — be  they 
fortunate  or  the  reverse — we  are  no  more  concerned 
than  with  those  of  any  other  evil  deed."  Later  she 
said:  "  Into  controversies  concerning  the  utility  of 
vivisection,  I  for  one  refuse  to  enter";  and  she 
published  a  leaflet  advising  her  sisters  to  follow  her 
example.  Ruskin  took  the  same  ground.  These 
hasty  enthusiasts  were  equally  indifferent  to  another 
fact,  which  ought  not  to  have  been  overlooked, 
namely,  that  suffering  was  usually  prevented  by  the 
use  of  anaesthetics,  which  are  indispensable  for  the 
success  of  many  experiments.  The  bill  for  prohibit- 
ing any  vivisection  was  brought  into  the  House  of 
Lords  in  1879;  but  it  was  opposed  by  a  nobleman 
who  presided  over  the  Society  for  the  Prevention 
of  Cruelty  to  Animals;  and  it  was  lost  by  16  votes 
against  97.  The  House  of  Commons  refused  even 
to  take  action  on  the  subject,  despite  four  years  of 
asfitation.  Thus  the  right  of  scientific  research  was 
finally  secured. 

Miss  Cobbe  was  one  of  the  noblest  of  women  ;  but 
even  she  was  made  blind  by  her  philosophy  to  the 
right  of  people  who  prefer  scientific  methods  to  act 
up  to  their  convictions.  Garrison,  too,  was  notori- 
ously unable  to  do  justice  to  anyone,  even  an  abol- 
itionist, who  did  not  agree  with  him.  There  is 
nothing  in  Transcendentalism  to  prevent  intoler- 
ance. This  philosophy  has  done  immense  service 
to  the  philanthropy  as  well  as  the  poetry  of  the 
nineteenth  century;  but  human  liberty  will  gain  by 
the  discovery  that  no  such  system  of  metaphysics 


Emerson 


151 


can  be  anything  better  than  a  temporary  bridge  for 
passing  out  of  the  swamps  of  superstition,  across 
the  deep  and  furious  torrent  of  scepticism,  into  a 
land  of  healthy  happiness  and  clear,  steady  light. 


CHAPTER  VI 

PLATFORM  VERSUS  PULPIT 

DURING  the  nineteenth  century  the  author- 
ity of  preachers  and  pastors  has  diminished 
plainly;  and  this  is  largely  due  to  a  fact  of  which 
Emerson  spoke  thus:  "  We  should  not  forgive  the 
clergy  for  taking  on  every  issue  the  immoral  side." 
This  was  true  in  England,  where  the  great  reforms 
were  achieved  for  the  benefit  of  the  masses,  and 
against  the  interest  of  the  class  to  which  most  clergy- 
men belonged.  The  American  pastor  seldom  dif- 
fered from  his  parishioners,  unless  he  was  more 
philanthropic.  He  was  usually  in  favour  of  the 
agitation  against  drunkenness ;  and  he  had  a  right  to 
say  that  the  disunionism  of  Phillips  and  Garrison, 
together  with  their  systematically  repelling  sym- 
pathy in  the  South,  went  far  to  offset  their  claim  for 
his  support.  It  was  difficult,  during  many  years,  to 
see  what  ought  to  be  done  in  the  North.  When  a 
practical  issue  was  made  by  the  attack  on  Kansas, 
the  clergy  took  the  side  of  freedom  almost  unanim- 
ously in  New  England,  and  quite  generally  in  rural 
districts  throughout  the  free  States.  The  indiffer- 
ence of  the  ministers  to  abolitionism,  before  1854, 
was  partly  due,  however,  to  their  almost  universal 

152 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  153 

opposition  to  a  kindred  reform,  which  they  might 
easily  have  helped. 

I.  It  was  before  Garrison  began  his  agitation  that 
Frances  Wright  denounced  the  clergy  for  hindering 
the  intellectual  emancipation  of  her  sex;  and  her 
first  ally  was  not  TJie  Liberator,  but  TJie  Investi- 
gator, though  both  began  almost  simultaneously. 
She  pleaded  powerfully  for  the  rights  of  slaves,  as 
well  as  of  married  women,  before  large  audiences  in 
the  middle  States  as  early  as  1836,  when  these  re- 
forms were  also  advocated  by  Mrs.  Ernestine  L. 
Rose,  a  liberal  Jewess.  These  ladies  spoke  to  men 
as  well  as  women;  and  so  next  summer  did  Miss 
Angelina  Grimke,  whose  zeal  against  slavery  had 
lost  her  her  home  in  South  Carolina.  Her  first 
public  lecture  was  in  Massachusetts;  and  the  Con- 
gregationalist  ministers  of  that  State  promptly  issued 
a  declaration  that  they  had  a  right  to  say  who  should 
speak  to  their  parishioners,  and  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment forbade  any  woman  to  become  a  "  public  re- 
former." Their  action  called  out  the  spirited  poem 
in  which  Whittier  said  : 

"  What  marvel  if  the  people  learn 

To  claim  the  right  of  free  opinion  ? 
What  marvel  if  at  times  they  spurn 
The  ancient  yoke  of  your  dominion  ?  " 

Garrison  now  came  out  in  favour  of  "  the  rights 
of  women,"  and  thus  lost  much  of  the  support 
which  he  was  receiving  from  the  country  clergy 
generally  in  New  England.  The  final  breach  was 
in  May,  1840,  at  the  meeting  of  the  National  Asso- 
ciation of  Abolitionists  in  New  York  City.     There 


154     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

came  Garrison  with  more  than  five  hundred  followers 
from  New  England.  They  gained  by  a  close  vote 
a  place  on  the  business  committee  for  that  noble 
woman,  Abby  Kelley.  Ministers  and  church  mem- 
bers seceded  and  started  a  new  anti-slavery  society, 
which  carried  away  most  of  the  members  and  even 
the  ofificers  of  the  old  one.  The  quarrel  was  em- 
bittered by  the  vote  of  censure,  passed  at  this  meet- 
ing upon  those  abolitionists  who  had  dared  to 
nominate  a  candidate  of  their  own  for  the  presidency 
without  leave  from  Mr.  Garrison ;  but  the  chief 
trouble  came  from  the  prejudice  which,  that  same 
summer,  caused  most  of  the  members  of  the  World's 
Anti-Slavery  Convention  in  London,  to  refuse  places 
to  Harriet  Martineau  and  other  ladies  as  delegates. 
This  exclusion  was  favoured  by  all  the  eight  clergy- 
men who  spoke,  and  by  no  other  speakers  so  earn- 
estly. Among  the  rejected  delegates  were  Mrs. 
Lucretia  Mott  and  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton; 
and  they  resolved,  that  night,  to  hold  a  convention 
for  the  benefit  of  their  sex  in  America. 

The  volume  of  essays  which  Emerson  published 
in  1844  praised  "  the  new  chivalry  in  behalf  of 
woman's  rights  "  ;  and  the  other  Transcendentalists 
in  America  came,  one  after  another,  to  the  same 
position.  Mrs.  Stanton  and  Mrs.  Mott  called  their 
convention  in  that  year  of  revolutions,  1848,  on 
July  19th.  The  place  was  the  Methodist  church  at 
Seneca  Falls,  in  central  New  York.  The  reformers 
found  the  door  locked  against  them ;  and  a  little 
boy  had  to  climb  in  at  the  window.  The  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  adopted  on  July  4,  1776,  fur- 
nished a  model  for  a  protest  against  the  exclusion 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  155 

of  girls  from  high  schools  and  colleges,  the  closing 
of  almost  every  remunerative  employment  against 
the  sex,  and  the  laws  forbidding  a  married  woman 
to  own  any  property,  whether  earned  or  inherited 
by  her,  even  her  own  clothing.  This  declaration 
was  adopted  unanimously;  but  a  demand  for  the 
suffrage  had  only  a  small  majority.  Not  a  single 
minister  is  known  to  have  been  present ;  but  there 
were  two  at  a  second  convention,  that  August,  in 
Rochester,  where  the  Unitarian  church  was  full  of 
men  and  women. 

There  were  more  than  twenty-five  thousand  min- 
isters in  the  United  States;  but  only  three  are 
mentioned  among  the  members  of  the  national  con- 
vention, held  at  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  in  Octo- 
ber, 1850,  by  delegates  from  eleven  States.  As 
Phillips  was  returning  from  this  meeting,  Theodore 
Parker  said  to  him,  "  Wendell,  why  do  you  make  a 
fool  of  yourself  ?  "  The  great  preacher  came  out 
a  few  years  later  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  women ; 
but  it  was  long  before  a  single  religious  newspaper 
caught  up  with  The  Investigator. 

How  the  clergy  generally  felt  was  shown  in  185 1, 
at  Akron,  in  northern  Ohio.  There  Episcopalian, 
Presbyterian,  Baptist,  Methodist,  and  Universalist 
ministers  appealed  to  the  Bible  in  justification  of  the 
subjugation  of  women.  There  was  no  reply  until 
they  began  to  boast  of  the  intellectual  superiority 
of  their  own  sex.  Then  an  illiterate  old  woman 
who  had  been  a  slave  arose  and  said:  "  What  's 
dat  got  to  do  with  women's  rights,  or  niggers'  rights 
either  ?  If  my  cup  won't  hold  but  a  pint,  and  yourn 
holds  a  quart,  would  n't  ye  be  mean  not  to  let  me 


156      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

have  my  little  half-measure  full  ?  "  The  convention 
was  with  her;  but  the  Bible  argument  was  not  to  be 
disposed  of  easily.  The  general  tone  of  both  Test- 
aments is  in  harmony  with  the  familiar  texts  at- 
tributed to  Paul  and  Peter.  These  latter  passages 
were  written,  in  all  probability,  when  the  position 
of  women  was  changing  for  the  better  throughout 
the  Roman  Empire;  and  the  original  words,  assert- 
ing the  authority  of  husbands,  are  the  same  as  are 
used  in  regard  to  the  power  of  masters  over  slaves. 
Such  language  had  all  the  more  weight,  because  the 
ministers  had  been  brought  up  as  members  of  the 
ruling  sex.  They  may  have  also  been  biassed  by 
the  fact  that  their  profession  depends,  more  than 
any  other,  for  success  upon  the  unpaid  services  in 
many  ways  of  devoted  women.  Emancipation  was 
by  no  means  likely  to  promote  work  for  the  Church. 
There  was  an  audience  of  two  thousand  at  Syra- 
cuse, in  1852,  when  what  was  called  the  "  Bloomer 
Convention,"  on  account  of  the  short  dresses  worn 
by  some  members,  took  up  a  resolution,  declaring 
that  the  Bible  recognises  the  rights  of  women.  Mrs. 
Rose  said  that  the  reform  had  merits  enough  of  its 
own,  and  needed  no  justification  by  any  book.  A 
letter  was  read  from  Mrs.  Stanton,  saying  that 
"  among  the  clergy  we  find  our  most  violent  ene- 
mies, those  most  opposed  to  any  change  in  woman's 
position."  The  accuracy  of  this  statement  was 
readily  admitted,  after  a  reverend  gentleman  had 
denounced  the  infidelity  of  the  movement,  in  a 
speech  described  as  "  indecent  "  and  "  coarsely 
offensive  "  in  the  New  York  Herald ;  and  the  reso- 
lution was  lost. 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  157 

The  lady  who  offered  it  was  ordained  soon  after 
for  the  Congregationalist  ministry;  but  she  was 
obliged  to  confess,  at  the  Woman's  Rights'  Con- 
vention, in  1853,  that  "  the  Church  has  so  far  cast 
me  off,  that  to  a  great  extent  I  have  been  obliged 
to  go  to  just  such  infidels  as  those  around  me  for 
aid  to  preach  my  Christian  views."  It  was  at  this 
meeting  that  a  doctor  of  divinity,  and  pastor  of  a 
prominent  society,  denounced  the  reform  so  viol- 
ently that  Mr.  Garrison  called  him  a  blackguard  and 
a  rowdy,  with  the  result  of  having  his  nose  pulled 
by  the  champion  of  the  Church  militant.  There 
were  many  such  unseemly  manifestations  of  clerical 
wrath.  The  History  of  Woman  Suffrage,  which  was 
edited  by  Mrs.  Stanton  and  other  leading  reformers, 
said,  in  1881  :  "  The  deadliest  opponents  to  the 
recognition  of  the  equal  rights  of  women  have  ever 
been  among  the  orthodox  clergy."  The  Unitarians 
were  more  friendly;  but  I  do  not  think  that  the  re- 
form was  openly  favoured,  even  as  late  as  i860,  by 
one  clergyman  in  a  thousand  out  of  the  whole  num- 
ber in  the  United  States.  The  proportion  was  even 
smaller  in  Europe. 

Even  as  late  as  1878,  it  was  resolved  by  the 
Woman  Suffrage  Convention  at  Rochester,  N.  Y., 

that  as  the  first  duty  of  every  individual  is  self- 
development,  the  lessons  of  self-sacrifice  and  obedi- 
ence taught  woman  by  the  Christian  Church  have 
been  fatal,  not  only  to  her  own  vital  interests  but 
through  her  to  those  of  the  race."  Influences  were 
already  at  work,  however,  which  have  made  the  rela- 
tions of  platform  and  pulpit  comparatively  friendly 
in  this  respect. 


158     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

The  women  of  the  North  showed  their  patriotism, 
during  the  great  war,  by  estabHshing  and  managing 
the  Sanitary  Commission,  the  Freedman's  Bureau, 
and  the  Woman's  Loyal  National  League.  Im- 
portant elections  were  carried  in  1862  by  the  elo- 
quence of  Anna  E.  Dickinson,  for  the  Republican 
party ;  and  it  has  often  since  had  similar  help.  The 
success  of  the  Women's  Christian  TemperanceUnion 
and  other  partly  philanthropic  and  partly  religious 
organisations,  has  proved  the  ability  of  women  to 
think  and  act  independently.  Many  of  their  de- 
mands have  been  granted,  one  by  one;  and  public 
opinion  has  changed  so  much  in  their  favour,  that 
they  ceased  long  ago  to  encounter  any  general  hos- 
tility from  the  clergy  in  the  Northern  States. 

Even  there,  however,  women  still  find  it  much 
too  difficult  for  them  to  enter  a  peculiarly  easy, 
honourable,  and  lucrative  profession.  Their  elocu- 
tionary powers  are  shown  on  the  stage  as  well  as  the 
platform.  Their  capacity  for  writing  sermons  is 
plain  to  every  one  familitar  with  recent  literature. 
Their  ability  to  preach  is  recognised  cordially  in  the 
Salvation  Army,  as  well  as  by  Spiritualists,  Quakers, 
Unitarians,  and  Universalists.  Much  of  the  pastoral 
work  is  done  by  women,  in  actual  fact;  and  more 
ought  to  be.  The  Sunday-school,  choir,  social 
gathering,  and  other  important  auxiliaries  to  the 
pulpit  are  almost  entirely  in  female  hands.  Women 
enjoy  practically  the  monopoly  of  those  kinds  of 
church  work  for  which  there  is  no  pay ;  and  their 
exclusion  from  the  kind  which  is  paid  highly,  in  the 
largest  and  wealthiest  denominations,  looks  too 
much  like  a  preference  of  clergymen  to  look  after 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  159 

the  interest  of  their  own  sex.  The  most  orthodox 
churches  are  the  most  exclusive;  and  the  same 
forces  which  are  driving  bigotry  out  of  the  pulpits 
are  bringing  women  in. 

This  reform  is  one  of  many  in  which  a  much  more 
advanced  position  has  been  taken  by  New  England 
and  the  far  West  than  by  the  South ;  and  the 
American  Transcendentalists  led  public  opinion  in 
the  section  where  most  of  them  lived.  In  Great 
Britain  the  struggle  has  been  carried  on  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  middle  and  lower  classes,  and  under 
much  opposition  from  the  class  to  which  most  ad- 
mirers of  philosophy  belonged.  No  wonder  that 
one  of  the  keenest  critics  of  Transcendentalism  was 
prominent  among  the  champions  in  England  of  the 
oppressed  sex.  John  Stuart  Mill  declared,  in  his 
widely  circulated  book  on  The  Subjection  of  Wojuen, 
that  "  nobody  ever  arrived  at  a  general  rule  of  duty 
by  intuition."  He  held  that  the  legal  subjection  of 
wives  to  husbands  bore  more  resemblance,  as  far  as 
the  laws  were  concerned,  to  slavery,  than  did  any 
other  relationship  existing  in  Great  Britain  in  1869. 
He  did  not  argue  from  any  theory  of  natural  rights, 
but  pointed  out  the  advantage  to  society  of  women's 
developing  their  capacities  freely.  He  also  insisted 
on  the  duty  of  government  not  to  restrict  the  liberty 
of  any  woman,  except  when  necessary  to  prevent 
her  diminishing  that  of  her  neighbours.  This  last 
proposition  will  be  examined  in  the  next  chapter. 
The  fact  that  Mill's  great  work  for  freedom  was 
done  through  the  press,  and  not  on  the  platform, 
makes  it  unnecessary  to  say  more  about  him  in 
this  place. 


i6o     Liberty  In  the  Nineteenth  Century 

II.  Clergymen,  like  Transcendentalists,  in  Eng- 
land were  generally  conservative,  or  reactionary  ;  and 
the  friends  of  reform  were  much  more  irreligious 
than  in  America.  Their  appeal  against  the  author- 
ity of  Church  and  Bible  was  not  to  intuition  but  to 
science;  and  they  were  aided  by  Lyell's  demonstra- 
tion, in  1830,  that  geology  had  superseded  Genesis. 
Working-men  were  warned  in  lectures,  tracts,  and 
newspapers  against  immorality  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment; and  even  the  New  was  said  to  discourage 
resistance  to  oppression  and  efforts  to  promote 
health,  comfort,   and  knowledge. 

The  most  popular  of  these  champions  against 
superstition  and  tyranny  was  Bradlaugh.  He  began 
to  lecture  in  1850,  when  only  seventeen,  and  con- 
tinued for  forty  years  to  speak  and  write  diligently. 
His  atlieism  obliged  him  to  undergo  poverty  for 
many  years,  and  much  hardship.  He  charged  no 
fee  for  lecturing,  went  willingly  to  the  smallest  and 
poorest  places,  and  was  satisfied  with  whatever  was 
brought  in  by  selling  tickets,  often  for  only  two- 
pence each.  He  once  travelled  six  hundred  miles 
in  forty-eight  hours,  to  deliver  four  lectures  which 
did  not  repay  his  expenses.  Many  a  hall  which  he 
had  engaged  was  closed  against  him  ;  and  he  was 
thus  obliged  to  speak  in  the  open  air  one  rainy 
Sunday,  when  he  had  two  thousand  hearers.  At 
such  times  his  voice  pealed  out  like  a  trumpet;  his 
information  was  always  accurate ;  opposition  quick- 
ened the  flow  of  ideas;  and  he  had  perfect  com- 
mand of  the  people's  English.  His  great  physical 
strength  was  often  needed  to  defend  him  against 
violence,  sometimes  instigated  by  the  clergy.      He 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  i6i 

had  much  to  say  against  the  Old  Testament ;  but  no 
struggle  for  political  liberty,  whether  at  home  or 
abroad,  failed  to  receive  his  support ;  and  he  was 
especially  active  for  that  great  extension  of  suffrage 
which  took  place  in  1867.  His  knowledge  that 
women  would  vote  against  him  did  not  prevent  his 
advocating  their  right  to  the  ballot ;  but  it  was  in 
the  name  of  "  the  great  mass  of  the  English  peo- 
ple "  that  he  was  an  early  supporter  of  the  cause  of 
Union  and  Liberty  against  the  slave-holders  who 
seceded. 

In  1866  he  became  president  of  the  National  So- 
ciety of  Secularists,  who  believe  only  in  "  the  re- 
ligion of  the  present  life."  Most  of  the  members 
were  agnostics;  and  one  of  Bradlaugh's  many  de- 
bates was  with  Holyoake,  the  founder  of  secularism, 
on  the  question  whether  that  term  ought  to  be  used 
instead  of  atheism.  The  society  was  so  well  organ- 
ised that  only  a  telegram  from  the  managers  was 
needed  to  call  out  a  public  meeting  anywhere  in  Eng- 
land. Among  Bradlaugh's  hearers  in  America  in 
1873  were  Emerson,  Sumner,  Garrison,  Phillips,  and 
O.  B.  Frothingham.  He  won  soon  after  a  powerful 
ally  in  a  clergyman's  wife,  who  had  been  driven 
from  her  home  by  her  husband  because  she  would 
not  partake  of  the  communion.  Mrs.  Besant  began 
to  lecture  in  1874,  and  with  views  like  Bradlaugh's; 
but  her  chief  interest  was  in  woman  suffrage.  Both 
held  strict  views  about  the  obligation  of  marriage; 
and  their  relations  were  blameless. 

Bradlaugh's  place  in  history  is  mainly  as  a  cham- 
pion of  the  right  of  atheists  to  sit  in  Parliament. 
He  was  elected  by  the  shoemakers  of  Northampton 


1 62      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

in  1880,  when  oaths  of  allegiance  were  exacted  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  Quakers,  however,  could 
afhrm ;  and  he  asked  the  same  privilege.  As  this 
was  refused,  he  offered  to  take  the  oath,  and  de- 
clared that  the  essential  part  would  be  "  binding 
upon  my  honour  and  conscience."  This,  too,  was 
forbidden ;  but  there  was  much  discussion,  not  only 
in  Parliament  but  throughout  England,  as  to  his 
right  to  affirm.  His  friends  held  two  hundred  pub- 
lic meetings  in  a  single  week,  and  sent  in  petitions 
with  two  hundred  thousand  signatures  during  twelve 
months.  The  liberal  newspapers  were  on  his  side; 
but  the  Methodist  and  Episcopalian  pulpits  re- 
sounded with  denials  of  the  right  of  atheists  to  enter 
Parliament  on  any  terms.  Among  the  expounders 
of  this  view  in  leading  periodicals  were  Cardinal 
Manning  and  other  prominent  ecclesiastics.  They 
had  the  support  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
as  well  as  of  many  petitions  from  Sunday-schools. 
Public  opinion  showed  itself  so  plainly  that  Brad- 
laugh  was  finally  allowed  by  a  close  vote  to  make 
afifirmation  and  take  his  seat.  He  was  soon  forced 
to  leave  it  by  an  adverse  decision  of  the  judges,  but 
was  promptly  re-elected. 

Again  he  offered  in  vain  to  take  the  oath.  After 
several  months  of  litigation,  and  many  appeals  to 
audiences  which  he  made  almost  unanimous,  he 
gave  notice  that  he  should  try  to  take  his  seat  on 
August  3,  1 88 1,  unless  prevented  by  force.  It  took 
fourteen  men  to  keep  him  out ;  and  he  was  dragged 
down-stairs  with  such  violence  that  he  fainted  away. 
His  clothes  were  badly  torn;  and  the  struggle 
brought  on  an  alarming  attack  of  erysipelas.     A 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  163 

great  multitude  had  followed  him  to  Westminster 
Hall,  and  there  would  have  been  a  dangerous  riot, 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  entreaties  of  Mrs.  Besant, 
who  spoke  at  Bradlaugh's  request.  His  next  move 
was  to  take  the  oath  without  having  it  properly  ad- 
ministered. He  was  expelled  in  consequence,  but 
re-elected  at  once.  Thus  the  contest  went  on,  until 
the  Speaker  decided  that  every  member  had  a  right 
to  take  the  oath  which  could  not  be  set  aside. 
Bradlaugh  was  admitted  accordingly,  on  January 
13,  1886;  and  two  years  later  he  brought  about  the 
passage  of  a  bill  by  which  unbelievers  were  enabled 
to  enter  Parliament  by  making  affirmation.  The 
Irish  members  had  tried  to  keep  him  out;  but  this 
did  not  prevent  his  advocating  home  rule  for  Ire- 
land, and  also  for  India.  From  first  to  last  he 
fought  fearlessly  and  steadily  for  freedom  of  speech 
and  of  the  press.  His  beauty  of  character  increased 
his  influence.  Mrs.  Besant  is  right  in  saying: 
"  That  men  and  women  are  now  able  to  speak  as 
openly  as  they  do,  that  a  broader  spirit  is  visible  in 
the  churches,  that  heresy  is  no  longer  regarded  as 
morally  disgraceful — these  things  are  very  largely 
due  to  the  active  and  militant  propaganda  carried 
on  under  the  leadership  of  Charles  Bradlaugh." 

III.  Similar  ideas  to  his  have  been  presented  ever 
since  1870  to  immense  audiences,  composed  mostly 
of  young  men,  in  Chicago,  New  York,  Boston,  and 
other  American  cities,  by  Robert  G.  Ingersoll. 
Burning  hatred  of  all  tyranny  and  cruelty  often 
makes  him  denounce  the  Bible  with  a  pathos  like 
Rousseau's  or  a  brilliancy  like  Voltaire's.      He  was 


164     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

decidedly  original  when  he  asked  why  Jesus,  if  he 
knew  how  Christianity  would  develop,  did  not  say 
that  his  followers  ought  not  to  persecute  one  another. 
In  protesting  against  subordinating  reason  to  faith, 
Ingersoll  says:  "  Ought  the  sailor  to  throw  away 
his  compass  and  depend  entirely  on  the  fog?" 
Among  other  characteristic  passages  are  these: 
"  Banish  me  from  Eden  when  you  will,  but  first  let 
me  eat  of  the  tree  of  knowledge!  "  .  .  .  "  Re- 
ligion has  not  civilised  man  :  man  has  civilised  re- 
ligion." .  .  .  "  Miracles  are  told  simply  to  be 
believed,  not  to  be  understood." 

Ingersoll  is  not  merely  a  destroyer  but  an  earnest 
pleader  for  what  he  calls  the  gospel  of  cheerfulness 
and  good  health,  "  the  gospel  of  water  and  soap," 
the  gospels  of  education,  liberty,  justice,  and 
humanity.  He  regards  "  marriage  as  the  holiest 
institution  among  men";  but  holds  that  "the 
woman  is  the  equal  of  the  man.  She  has  all  the 
rights  I  have  and  one  more;  and  that  is  the  right  to 
be  protected."  He  believes  fully  "  in  the  demo- 
cracy of  the  family,"  and  "  in  allowing  the  children 
to  think  for  themselves."  He  is  not  so  much  in- 
terested as  Bradlaugh  was  in  political  reform  and 
social  progress,  but  has  often  taken  the  conservative 
side;  and  his  speaking  in  public  has  been  more  like 
an  occasional  recreation  than  a  life-work.  Some  of 
his  lectures  have  had  an  immense  circulation  as 
pamphlets;  and  his  Biblical  articles  in  the  NortJi 
American  Review  attracted  much  notice.  He  is 
never  at  his  best,  however,  without  an  audience 
before  him  ;  and  he  sometimes  writes  too  rapidly  to 
be  strictly  accurate. 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  165 

IV,  A  better  parallel  to  Bradlaugh  is  furnished  by 
Mr.  B.  F.  Underwood,  who  was  only  eighteen  when 
he  began  to  lecture  in  Rhode  Island.  The  great 
revival  of  1857  was  in  full  blast;  and  he  showed  its 
evils  with  an  energy  which  called  down  much  de- 
nunciation from  the  pulpit.  He  spoke  from  the 
first  as  an  evolutionist,  though  Darwin  had  not  yet 
demonstrated  the  fact.  To  and  fro  through  the 
Connecticut  valley  went  the  young  iconoclast, 
speaking  wherever  he  could  find  hearers,  asking 
only  for  repayment  of  expenses,  and  sometimes 
failing  to  receive  even  that.  His  work  was  inter- 
rupted by  the  war,  in  which  he  took  an  active  and 
honourable  part.  When  peace  was  restored,  he 
studied  thoroughly  the  Origin  of  Species  and  the 
Descent  of  Man ;  and  he  began  in  1868  to  give 
course  after  course  of  lectures  on  Darwinism  in  New 
England,  New  York,  and  Pennsylvania.  The  new 
view  had  been  nine  years  before  the  public,  but  had 
received  little  or  no  support  from  any  clergyman 
in  the  United  States,  or  any  journal  except  TJie 
Investigator. 

For  thirty  years  Mr.  Underwood  has  been  busily 
propagating  evolutionism  on  the  platform,  as  well 
as  in  print.  No  other  American  has  done  so  much 
to  make  the  system  popular,  or  has  reproduced 
Herbert  Spencer's  statements  with  such  fidelity. 
He  has  taken  especial  pains  to  prove  that  "  evolu- 
tion disposes  of  the  theory  that  the  idea  of  God  is 
innate,"  as  well  as  of  the  once  mighty  argument 
from  design.  He  has  said  a  great  deal  about  the 
Bible  and  Christianity,  but  in  a  more  construc- 
tive spirit  than  either  Bradlaugh  or  Ingersoll.     He 


1 66     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

has  discredited  old  books  by  unfolding  new  truth. 
Among  his  favourite  subjects  have  been:  "What 
Free  Thought  Gives  us  in  Place  of  the  Creeds," 
"  The  Positive  Side  of  Modern  Liberal  Thought," 
"  If  you  Take  away  Religion,  what  will  you  Give 
in  its  Place  ?"  "  The  Influence  of  Civilisation  on 
Christianity."  He  has  always  shown  himself  in 
favour  of  the  interests  of  working-men,  and  also  of 
women's  rights  and  other  branches  of  political  re- 
form. During  the  twelve  years  ending  in  i88i,  he 
lectured  five  or  six  times  a  week  for  at  least  nine 
months  out  of  twelve,  often  travelling  from  Canada 
to  Arkansas  and  Oregon.  Occasionally  he  spoke 
every  night  for  a  month  ;  but  he  has  seldom  lectured 
in  summer,  except  when  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

His  lectures  in  Oregon  in  1871  on  evolution 
awoke  much  opposition  in  the  pulpits.  Two  years 
afterwards  he  held  a  debate  in  that  State  against  a 
clergyman  who  was  president  of  a  college,  and  who 
denounced  evolution  as  in  conflict  with  "  the  Word 
of  God."  Such  views  were  then  prevalent  in  that 
city;  but  in  1888  it  was  found  by  Mr.  Underwood 
to  have  become  the  seat  of  the  State  University, 
where  the  new  system  was  taught  regularly.  Under- 
wood, like  Bradlaugh,  has  always  challenged  discus- 
sion, and  he  has  held  over  a  hundred  public  debates. 
The  first  was  in  1867;  and  some  have  occupied 
twenty  evenings.  Most  of  his  opponents  have  been 
clergymen;  and  a  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  profes- 
sion were  in  the  audience  at  one  contest  in  Illinois 
in  1870.  How  much  public  opinion  differs  in  various 
States  of  the  Union  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  nine 
years  later  the  doors  of  a  hall  which  had  been  en- 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  167 

gaged  for  him  in  Pennsylvania  were  closed  against 
him,  merely  because  he  was  "  an  infidel."  His 
friends  broke  in  without  his  consent;  and  he  was 
fined  $70.  The  first  lecture  which  he  tried  to  give 
in  Canada  was  prevented  by  similar  dishonesty. 
Another  hall  was  hired  for  the  next  night  at  great 
expense  ;  but  much  interruption  was  made  by 
clergymen ;  and  when  suit  was  brought  for  damages 
through  breach  of  contract,  the  courts  decided 
that  bargains  with  unbelievers  were  not  binding  in 
Canada. 

Both  Bradlaugh  and  Underwood  have  usually 
spoken  extempore,  but  both  have  been  busy  jour- 
nalists. The  American  agitator  wrote  as  early  as 
1856  for  both  Tlie  Liberator  and  The  Investigator. 
His  connection  with  the  latter  paper  lasted  until  the 
time  when  a  serious  difference  of  opinion  arose  be- 
tween those  aggressive  unbelievers  who  called  them- 
selves "  freethinkers,"  or  even  "  infidels,"  and 
those  moderate  liberals  who  belong  to  the  Free  Re- 
ligious Association,  and  formerly  supported  The 
Index.  This  journal  came  in  1881  under  the  man- 
agement of  Mr.  Underwood.  His  colleague,  Rev. 
W.  J.  Potter,  was  nominally  his  equal  in  authority; 
but  I  know,  from  personal  acquaintance  with  both 
gentlemen,  that  the  real  editor  from  first  to  last  was 
Mr.  Underwood.  It  was  mainly  due  to  him  that 
much  attention  was  given,  both  in  the  columns  of 
the  journal  and  in  the  meetings  of  the  association, 
to  efforts  for  secularising  the  State.  He  was  in 
charge  of  The  Index  until  it  stopped  at  the  end  of 
1886.  In  1882  he  held  a  discussion  in  Boston  with 
the  president  of  Williams   College,    and   Professor 


1 68     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Gray,  the  great  botanist,  on  the  relations  between 
evolution  and  "  evangelical  religion."  About  four 
hundred  orthodox  clergymen  were  present.  In  1897 
Mr.  Underwood  was  still  in  his  original  occupation. 
Early  that  year  he  lectured  in  Illinois,  Indiana, 
Michigan,  Ohio,  New  York,  Connecticut,  Rhode 
Island,  Massachusetts,  and  Canada.  He  now  be- 
lieves, like  Emerson,  in  "  a  higher  origin  for  events 
than  the  will  I  call  mine." 

V.  The  difference  of  opinion  among  liberals,  just 
referred  to,  grew  out  of  the  agitation  for  a  free  Sun- 
day, which  had  been  begun  by  Frances  Wright  in 
1828.  A  call  for  "  an  anti-Sabbath  convention  " 
in  Boston  was  issued  by  some  Transcendentalists  in 
1848,  when  men  had  recently  been  imprisoned  in 
Massachusetts  for  getting  in  hay,  and  in  Pennsyl- 
vania for  selling  anti-slavery  books.  Churches  were 
closed  on  Sunday  against  lecturers  for  any  reform, 
however  popular  ;  and  even  the  most  innocent 
amusement  was  prohibited  by  public  opinion.  Only 
a  moderate  protest  had  any  chance  of  a  hearing; 
but  Garrison  and  the  other  managers  insisted  in  the 
call  that  "  the  first  day  of  the  week  is  no  holier 
than  any  other,"  and  refused  to  allow  anyone  who 
did  not  believe  this  to  speak.  Very  little  was  said 
about  what  the  Sunday  laws  really  were;  but  most 
of  the  time  was  occupied  with  arguments  that  the 
Sabbath  was  only  for  the  Jews,  and  that  keeping 
Sunday  is  not  a  religious  duty.  This  last  assertion 
called  out  an  earnest  remonstrance  from  Theodore 
Parker;  but  his  resolutions  were  voted  down.  The 
Garrisonians  insisted,  as  usual,  that  the  big  end  of 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  169 

the  wedge  ought  to  go  in  first ;  and  their  convention 
was  a  failure.  Twenty-eight  years  went  by  without 
any  protest  of  importance  against  Sunday  laws  in 
America. 

Meantime  the  Free  Religious  Association  was 
organised  in  Boston  by  Unitarian  clergymen  who 
were  indignant  at  the  recent  introduction  into  their 
denomination  of  a  doctrinal  condition  of  fellowship. 
The  first  public  meeting,  on  May  30,  1867,  called 
out  an  immense  audience.  Emerson  was  one  of  the 
speakers;  and  he  held  his  place  among  the  vice- 
presidents  as  long  as  he  lived.  A  similar  position 
w^as  offered  to  Lucretia  Mott,  but  she  declined  on 
the  platform.  Her  reason  Avas  that  practical  work 
was  subordinated  to  theological  speculation  by  the 
announcement  in  the  constitution  that  the  associa- 
tion was  organised  "  to  promote  the  interests  of 
pure  religion,  to  encourage  the  scientific  study  of 
theology,  and  to  increase  fellowship  in  the  Spirit." 
These  phrases  were  altered  afterwards;  but  the  as- 
sociation has  always  been,  in  the  words  of  one  of  its 
leading  members  "  a  voice  without  a  hand."  Free 
religious  conventions  have  regularly  increased  the 
confusion  of  tongues  in  that  yearly  Boston  Babel 
called  "  Anniversary  Week  "  ;  and  there  have  been 
many  similar  gatherings  in  various  cities;  but  not 
one  in  four  of  these  meetings  has  given  much  atten- 
tion to  any  practical  subject,  like  the  use  of  the 
Bible  in  the  public  schools.  A  vigorous  discussion 
of  the  Sunday  laws  of  Massachusetts  took  place  in 
1876,  under  peculiar  circumstances  to  be  described 
in  the  next  section;  but  there  was  no  other  until 
1887.      The  Index  started  in  1870 ;  but  it  was  largely 


170     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

occupied  with  vague  speculations  about  theology; 
and  its  discontinuance  in  1886  left  the  associa- 
tion without  any  organ  of  frequent  communication 
among  its  members,  or  even  an  office  for  business. 
Dr.  Adler,  who  became  president  in  1878,  tried  to 
awaken  an  interest  in  unsectarian  education,  and 
especially  in  ethical  culture;  but  he  resigned  on  ac- 
count of  lack  of  support;  and  the  Ethical  Culture 
societies  were  started  outside  of  the  association. 
Comparatively  few  of  its  members  took  any  interest 
in  the  petitions  presented  by  its  direction  to  the 
Massachusetts  Legislature  in  1884  and  1885,  asking 
for  taxation  of  churches,  protection  of  witnesses 
from  molestation  on  account  of  unbelief,  and  rescue 
of  the  Sunday  law  from  giving  sanctuary  to  fraud. 
The  president  acknowledged  in  1892  that  there  had 
been  a  ' '  general  debility  for  practical  work. '  *  There 
seems  to  have  been  a  lack  of  energy  among  the 
managers;  and  some  of  the  members  were  too 
anxious  to  preserve  their  individuality,  while  others 
had  too  much  regard  for  ecclesiastical  interests. 
The  Parliament  of  Religions  next  year,  however, 
showed  what  good  the  association  had  done  by  in- 
sisting continually  on  fellowship  in  religion,  and 
keeping  its  platform  open  to  Jews,  Hindoos,  and 
unbelievers,  as  well  as  to  Christians  of  every  sect. 

VI.  Prominent  among  the  founders  of  the  Free 
Religious  Association  was  Francis  E.  Abbot,  who 
lost  his  place  soon  after  as  pastor  of  an  independent 
society,  because  the  Supreme  Court  of  New  Hamp- 
shire decided,  on  the  request  of  some  Unitarians  for 
an  injunction  against  him,  that  his  opinions  were 


i 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  171 

"  subversive  of  tlie  fundamental  principles  of  Christ- 
ianity. He  was  the  first  editor  of  The  Index ;  and 
there  appeared  in  April,  1872,  his  statement  of  what 
are  generally  recognised  as 

"THE   DEMANDS   OF   LIBERALISM 

"  I.  We  demand  that  churches  and  other  ecclesiastical 
property  shall  no  longer  be  exempt  from  just  taxation. 

"  2.  We  demand  that  the  employment  of  chaplains  in 
Congress,  in  State  legislatures,  in  the  navy  and  militia, 
and  in  prisons,  asylums,  and  all  other  institutions  sup- 
ported by  public  money,  shall  be  discontinued. 

"  3.  We  demand  that  all  public  appropriations  for 
educational  and  charitable  institutions  of  a  sectarian 
character  shall  cease. 

"  4.  We  demand  that  all  religious  services  now  sus- 
tained by  the  Government  shall  be  abolished  ;  and  es- 
pecially that  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  the  public  schools, 
whether  ostensibly  as  a  text-book  or  avowedly  as  a  book 
of  religious  worship,  shall  be  prohibited. 

"  5.  We  demand  that  the  appointment,  by  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  or  by  the  Governors  of  the  various 
States,  of  all  religious  festivals  and  fasts  shall  wholly 
cease. 

"6.  We  demand  that  the  judicial  oath  in  the  courts 
and  in  all  other  departments  of  the  Government  shall  be 
abolished,  and  that  simple  affirmation  under  the  pains 
and  penalties  of  perjury  shall  be  established  in  its  stead. 

"7.  We  demand  that  all  laws  directly  or  indirectly 
enforcing  the  observance  of  Sunday  as  the  Sabbath 
shall  be  repealed. 

"  8.  We  demand  that  all  laws  looking  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  "  Christian  "  morality  shall  be  abrogated,  and 
that  all  laws  shall  be  conformed  to  the  requirements  of 
natural  morality,  equal  rights,  and  impartial  liberty. 


172      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

"9,  We  demand  that  not  only  in  the  Constitutions  of 
the  United  States,  and  of  the  several  States,  but  also  in 
the  practical  administration  of  the  same,  no  privilege  or 
advantage  shall  be  conceded  to  Christianity  or  any  other 
special  religion  ;  that  our  entire  political  system  shall 
be  founded  and  administered  on  a  purely  secular  basis  ; 
and  that  whatever  changes  shall  prove  necessary  to  this 
end  shall  be  consistently,  unflinchingly,  and  promptly 
made." 

He  knew  how  unlikely  it  was  that  the  Association 
would  agitate  for  anything;  and  in  January,  1873, 
he  published  a  call  for  organisation  of  liberal 
leagues,  in  order  to  obtain  the  freedom  already 
asked.  Such  leagues  were  soon  formed  in  most  of 
the  States,  as  well  as  in  Germany  and  Canada. 
Among  the  members  were  Phillips,  Garrison,  Lu- 
cretia  Mott,  Higginson,  and  other  famous  abolition- 
ists, Karl  Heinzen  and  other  radical  Germans, 
several  Rabbis  and  editors  of  Jewish  papers,  Inger- 
soll,  Underwood,  the  editor  of  The  Investigator,  2,\\6. 
other  active  agitators,  several  wealthy  men  of  busi- 
ness, Collyer,  Savage,  and  other  Unitarian  clergy- 
men. Hundreds  of  newspapers  supported  the 
movement;  and  eight  hundred  members  had  been 
enrolled  before  a  convention  of  the  National  Liberal 
League  met  in  Philadelphia,  on  the  first  four  days 
of  July,  1876.  The  managers  of  the  International 
Exhibition  in  that  city  had  already  decided  that  it 
should  be  closed  on  Sunday,  in  violation  of  the 
rights,  and  against  the  wishes,  of  the  Jews,  unbeliev- 
ers, and  many  other  citizens.  The  Free  Religious 
Association  had  been  requested  in  vain,  at  a  recent 
meeting,  to  remonstrate  against  this  iniquity.     The 


I 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  173 

League  passed  a  strong  vote  of  censure  without  op- 
position, and  appointed  a  committee  to  present  a 
protest  which  had  been  circulated  during  the  con- 
vention. Resolutions  were  also  passed  asserting  the 
right  of  all  Americans  to  enjoy  on  Sunday  the  pub- 
lic libraries,  museums,  parks,  and  similar  institutions 

for  the  support  of  which  they  are  taxed,"  and  de- 
manding "  that  all  religious  exercises  should  be 
prohibited  in  the  public  schools." 

It  was  under  the  influence  of  this  example  that 
the  Free  Religious  Association  held  a  special  con- 
vention on  November  15,  1876,  to  protest  against 
the  Sunday  laws  of  Massachusetts.  A  Jewish  Rabbi 
complained  that  more  than  two  thousand  Hebrew 
children  in  Boston  were  prevented  from  keeping 
holy  the  day  set  apart  for  rest  and  worship  in  Exo- 
dus and  Deuteronomy,  and  many  of  them  actually 
obliged  by  their  teachers  to  break  the  Sabbath. 
This  was  the  effect  of  the  law  commanding  them  to 
go  to  school  on  Saturday,  which  is  that  "  seventh 
day  "  whose  observance  is  required  by  the  fourth 
commandment.  Other  speakers  declared  that  no 
legislation  was  needed  to  ensure  Sunday's  remaining 
a  day  of  rest.  Mention  was  made  of  the  fact  that 
"  any  game,  sport,  play,  or  public  diversion,"  not 
specially  licensed,  on  Saturday  evening,  made  all 
persons  present  liable  to  be  fined.  This  was  already 
a  dead  letter;  and  the  theatres  had  announced  with 
perfect  safety  twenty  years  before,  in  their  play- 
bills, "  We  defy  the  law."  A  few  months  after  this 
convention,  its  influence  was  shown  in  the  opening 
of  the  Art  Museum  free  of  charge  to  the  people  of 
Boston,  Sunday  afternoons. 


174     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Thus  the  Association  began  to  co-operate  with 
the  National  League;  and  the  latter  soon  had  the 
support  of  more  than  sixty  local  organisations.  The 
movement  for  establishing  "  Equal  Rights  in  Re- 
ligion "  was  uniting  Liberal  Christians,  Jews, 
independent  theists,  Spiritualists,  materialists, 
evolutionists,  agnostics,  and  atheists.  All  were 
willing  to  call  themselves  "  Freethinkers  "  and  work 
together  as  they  have  never  done  since  1877.  Then 
the  League  felt  itself  strong  enough  to  call  for 
"  taxation  of  church  property,"  "  secularisation  of 
public  schools,"  "  abrogation  of  Sabbatarian  laws," 
and  also  for  woman  suffrage,  as  well  as  compulsory 
education  throughout  the  United  States.  Steps 
were  taken  towards  nominating  Ingersoll  on  this 
platform  for  President  of  the  Republic. 

These  plans  had  to  be  abandoned ;  the  agitation 
subsided ;  and  the  harmony  between  lovers  of  lib- 
erty from  various  standpoints  was  lost.  A  fatal 
difference  of  opinion  was  manifest  in  1878,  in  re- 
gard to  those  Acts  of  Congress  called  "  the  Com- 
stock  laws."  These  statutes  forbade  sending 
obscene  literature  through  the  mails;  and  there 
had  been  more  than  a  hundred  recent  convictions. 
Some  of  the  prosecutions  were  said  to  have  been 
prompted  by  religious  bigotry;  and  there  seems  to 
have  been  unjustifiable  examination  of  mail  matter. 
The  most  important  question  was  whether  the  laws 
ought  to  be  enforced  against  newspapers  and  pam- 
phlets about  free  love  and  marital  tyranny,  which 
were  not  meant  to  be  indecent  but  really  were  so  oc- 
casionally. A  publisher  in  Massachusetts  was  sen- 
tenced in  June,  1878,  to  two  years  of  imprisonment 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  1 75 

for  trying  to  mail  such  a  pamphlet ;  but  he  was  soon 
released.  More  severe  punishment  has  been  inflicted 
recently  for  similar  offences.  The  majority  of  people 
in  America  and  England  favoured  the  exclusion  by 
law  of  indecent  literature  from  circulation;  and  this 
course  has  been  considered  necessary  on  account  of 
the  known  frailty  of  human  nature.  The  members 
of  the  Free  Religious  Association  were  willing  to 
have  the  Comstock  laws  changed,  but  not  repealed; 
and  they  voted,  early  in  1878,  to  take  no  part  in 
what  threatened  to  be  an  unfortunate  controversy. 
The  League,  however,  was  divided  on  the  question 
whether  these  laws  ought  to  be  amended  or  repealed. 
Abbot,  Underwood,  and  other  prominent  members 
declared  that  literature  ought  to  be  excluded  from 
the  mails  or  admitted  according  as  it  was  intention- 
ally and  essentially  indecent,  or  only  accidentally 
so.  Thus  IngersoU  said:  "We  want  all  nastiness 
suppressed  for  ever;  but  we  also  want  the  mails 
open  to  all  decent  people."  Other  members  held 
that  the  Comstock  laws  ought  to  be  repealed 
entirely,  and  no  restriction  put  on  the  circulation 
of  any  literature  except  by  public  opinion.  This 
must  be  admitted  to  agree  with  the  principle  that 
each  one  ought  to  have  all  the  liberty  consistent 
with  the  equal  liberty  of  everyone  else;  but  this 
application  of  the  theory  cannot  be  considered 
politic  in  agitating  for  religious  freedom.  The  In- 
vestigator, Trjithscekcr,  and  other  aggressive  papers, 
however,  called  for  complete  repeal;  and  a  petition 
with  this  object  received  seventy  thousand  signa- 
tures. 

The    National  League  had  voted,   in    1876,   that 


176     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

legislation  against  obscene  publications  was  abso- 
lutely necessary,  but  that  the  existing  laws  needed 
amendment.  The  question  whether  this  position 
should  be  maintained,  was  announced  as  the  princi- 
pal business  to  be  settled  in  the  convention  which 
met  at  Syracuse  on  October  26,  1878.  Mr.  Abbot, 
the  president,  and  other  prominent  officers  declared 
that  they  should  not  be  candidates  for  re-election  if 
the  position  assumed  two  years  before  was  not  kept. 
Scarcely  had  the  convention  met,  when  its  manage- 
ment passed  into  the  hands  of  the  friends  of  repeal. 
They  allowed  Judge  Hurlbut,  formerly  on  the 
bench  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State,  to  argue 
in  favour  of  closing  the  mails  against  publications 
"  manifestly  designed  or  mainly  tending  to  corrupt 
the  morals  of  the  young."  Much  respect  was  due 
to  the  author  of  a  book  which  declared,  in  1850, 
that  married  women  had  a  right  to  vote  and  hold 
property,  as  well  as  that  the  State  "  cannot  right- 
fully compel  any  man  to  keep  Sunday  as  a  religious 
institution ;  nor  can  it  compel  him  to  cease  from 
labour  or  recreation  on  that  day;  since  it  cannot  be 
shown  that  the  ordinary  exercise  of  the  human 
faculties  on  that  day  is  in  any  way  an  infringement 
upon  the  rights  of  mankind."  On  Sunday  morning, 
October  27th,  it  was  agreed  that  the  question  of 
repeal  or  reform  should  be  postponed  until  the  next 
annual  convention;  but  the  decision  was  made  a 
foregone  conclusion  that  afternoon,  when  three- 
fifths  of  the  members  voted  not  to  re-elect  Mr. 
Abbot  and  other  champions  of  reform.  The  de- 
feated candidates  left  the  convention  at  once,  as 
did    Mr.    Underwood    and    many    other   members, 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  177 

Judge  Hurlbut  taking  the  lead.  A  new  league 
was  organised  by  the  seceders ;  but  it  was  not  a 
success. 

The  movement  for  amending,  but  not  repeal- 
ing, the  Comstock  laws  was  given  up ;  and  most  of 
those  who  had  favoured  it  took  sides  with  those 
who  had  refused  to  agitate.  There  was  little  inter- 
est in  "  The  Demands  of  LiberaHsm  "  thenceforth 
among  the  Liberal  Christians,  Reformed  Jews, 
TranscendentaHsts,  and  evolutionists.  These  and 
other  moderate  liberals  refuse  to  call  themselves 
"Freethinkers";  and  they  make  little  attempt  a^ 
collective  and  distinctive  action.  The  Free  Relig- 
ious Association  did  nothing  towards  secularising  the 
laws  of  Massachusetts  between  1876  and  1884.  The 
agitation  which  began  in  the  latter  year  ended  on 
May  27,  1887,  when  the  Sunday  laws  were  discussed 
at  Boston  in  a  large  and  enthusiastic  convention. 
The  Legislature  had  just  passed  a  bill  to  legalise 
Saturday  evening  amusements,  as  well  as  boating, 
sailing,  driving,  use  of  telegraph,  and  sale  of  milk, 
bread,  newspapers,  and  medicines  on  Sunday;  the 
signature  of  the  Governor  had  not  yet  been  given; 
but  it  was  agreed  that  these  changes  must  be  made, 
and  for  the  reason  that  the  old  restrictions  could  not 
be  enforced.  Judge  Putnam,  of  the  State  District 
Court,  told  the  convention  that  "  the  Sunday  law, 
so  called,  has  not  in  a  long,  long  time  been  en- 
forced," except  by  "  a  prosecution  here  and  there  "  ; 
and  that  if  it  were  to  be  enforced  strictly,  the  pro- 
secutions would  occupy  nearly  all  the  week.  He 
opposed  any  restraint  on  "  entertainments  not  of 
an  immoral  tendency."     Mr.  Garrison,  son  of  the 


178     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

famous  abolitionist,  declared  that  Sunday  ought  to 
be  "  the  holiday  of  the  week."  Captain  Adams, 
of  Montreal,  said:  "  This  is  not  a  mere  question 
how  much  men  may  do  or  enjoy  on  Sunday:  it  is 
a  question  of  human  liberty,  a  question  whether 
ecclesiastical  tyranny  shall  still  put  its  yoke  on  our 
necks."  The  tone  was  bold,  but  thoroughly  prac- 
tical from  first  to  last. 

An  earnest  protest  against  closing  the  Chicago 
Exposition  on  the  people's  day  of  leisure  was  made 
by  the  F.  R.  A.,  in  May,  1893;  and  an  important 
victory  in  behalf  of  religious  liberty  was  won  in  1898 
in  Massachusetts.  The  Sunday  laws  of  this  State 
have  been  so  improved  as  to  permit  what  are  called 
"charity  concerts, "  and  are  not  made  up  entirely  of 
ecclesiastical  music,  to  be  given  for  the  pecuniary 
benefit  of  charitable  and  religious  societies  on  Sun- 
day evenings.  The  Legislature  which  met  early  in 
1898  was  asked  by  representatives  of  the  Monday 
Conference  of  Unitarian  Ministers,  the  Women's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  and  several  other  re- 
ligious organisations  to  alter  the  law  so  as  to  pre- 
vent any  but  "  sacred  music  "  from  being  heard  on 
the  only  evening  when  many  people  in  Boston  can 
go  to  concerts.  The  officers  of  the  F.  R.  A.  made 
a  formal  request  to  be  heard  by  a  committee  of  the 
Legislature  through  counsel,  who  proved  that  the 
"  charity  concerts  "  were  really  unobjectionable, 
and  that  the  opposition  to  them  was  due  entirely 
to  zeal  for  an  ancient  text  forbidding  Hebrews  to 
labour  on  Saturday  in  Palestine. 

The  injustice  of  stretching  this  prohibition  so  far 
as  to  try  to  stop  concerts  on   Sunday  evenings  in 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  1 79 

America  was  pointed  out  by  representatives,  not 
only  of  the  F.  R.  A.,  but  also  of  the  International 
Religious  Liberty  Association,  which  has  been 
formed  to  protect  Christians  who  have  kept  the 
Sabbath  on  the  original  day  set  apart  in  Exodus 
and  Deuteronomy,  from  being  punished  for  not  pro- 
longing their  rest  from  honest  labour  over  an  addi- 
tional day,  first  selected  by  an  emperor  whose  decrees 
are  not  worthy  of  reverence.  This  association  has 
offices  in  Chicago,  New  York  City,  Toronto,  Lon- 
don, Basel,  and  other  cities;  and  its  principles  are 
ably  advocated  in  a  weekly  paper  entitled  the  Anicri- 
can  Sentinel.  Representatives  of  this  organisation 
assisted  those  of  the  F.  R.  A.  in  forcing  the  "charity 
concerts  "  question  to  be  decided  on  its  own  merits, 
independent  of  ancient  texts.  The  members  of 
the  legislative  committee  made  a  unanimous  report 
against  suppressing  these  harmless  amusements; 
and  their  opinion  was  sustained  by  their  colleagues. 
This  victory  was  duly  celebrated  at  the  annual  con- 
vention of  the  F.  R.  A.,  in  Boston,  on  May  27, 
1898.  Among  the  speakers  that  afternoon  was  the 
secretary  of  the  LR.L.A.,  who  said  :  "  If  any  nation 
under  heaven  has  the  right  to  confiscate  one-seventh 
of  my  time,  and  tell  how  I  shall  and  how  I  shall  not 
use  that,  then  the  whole  principle  of  inherent  rights  is 
denied,  and  it  now  is  simply  a  matter  of  polic}- whether 
it  shall  not  confiscate  two-sevenths,  three-sevenths, 
or  seven-sevenths,  and  take  away  all  my  liberty." 

Since  1878,  the  agitation  for  religious  equality  has 
been  carried  on  mainly  by  materialistic  atheists  and 
agnostics,  with  some  assistance  from  Spiritualists. 
These  aggressive  liberals  continue  to  call  themselves 


I  So     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

"  Freethinkers,"  and  to  support  the  Investigator, 
Triithscekcr,  and  other  papers  which  have  much  to 
say  against  Sunday  laws,  religious  use  of  the  Bible 
in  public  schools,  and  exemption  of  churches  from 
taxation.  They  often  reprint  "  The  Demands  of 
Liberalism"  ;  and  one  of  these  requests  has  been  so 
amended  in  Canada  as  to  ask  for  the  repeal  of  "  all 
laws  directly  or  indirectly  enforcing  the  observance 
of  Sunday  or  the  Sabbath."  The  attack  on  the 
Comstock  laws  has  subsided ;  and  no  reference  was 
made  to  them  in  1897  in  the  call  for  a  convention  of 
the  organisation  which  took  the  place  of  the  whole 
system  of  national  and  local  leagues  in  1885.  The 
name  then  chosen  was  "  The  American  Secular 
Union."  The  words,  "  and  Freethought  Federa- 
tion "  were  added  in  1895,  when  two  kindred  asso- 
ciations were  consolidated.  It  was  under  strong 
and  constant  pressure  from  these  aggressive  liberals 
that  the  great  museums  of  art  and  natural  history  in 
New  York  were  thrown  open  on  Sundays  to  longing 
crowds.  One  of  the  petitions  was  signed  by  repre- 
sentatives of  a  hundred  and  twelve  labour  organ- 
isations. The  trustees  of  the  Art  Museum  were 
induced  to  open  it  in  the  summer  of  1891  by  the 
contribution  of  $3000,  which  had  been  collected  by 
some  young  ladies  for  meeting  extra  expenses. 
Thirty-eight  thousand  people  took  advantage,  in 
August,  1892,  of  their  first  opportunity  to  visit  the 
Museum  of  Natural  History  on  their  one  day  of 
leisure  ;  and  these  visitors  were  remarkable  for  good 
behaviour.  There  has  been  a  similar  experience  in 
the  Boston  Art  Museum  ever  since  the  Sunday 
opening  in  1877. 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  i8i 

VII.  An  exciting  contest  took  place  at  Chicago  in 
1893.  More  than  fifty  nations  were  co-operating 
with  the  people  of  every  one  of  the  United  States 
in  commemorating  the  discovery  of  America.  Dis- 
reputable politicians  had  persuaded  Congress  to  pass 
a  bill,  by  which  closing  the  Exposition  on  Sundays 
was  made  a  condition  of  receiving  aid  from  the 
National  Treasury.  The  people  of  Chicago  had 
given  three  times  as  much,  however,  as  Congress; 
and  there  was  much  dissatisfaction  among  those 
citizens  who  had  bought  stock  in  the  enterprise. 
The  grounds  had  been  kept  open  to  visitors  for 
some  months,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  until  the  build- 
ings were  formally  thrown  open  on  May  1st;  and 
the  receipts  had  been  liberal  enough  to  prove  that 
continuance  of  this  course  would  be  greatly  to  the 
advantage  of  these  shareholders,  while  Sunday 
closing  might  result  in  heavy  loss.  During  the  first 
three  Sundays  of  May  the  gates  were  kept  shut  by 
order  of  the  Board  of  National  Commissioners, 
made  up  of  members  from  every  State.  Their 
action  and  that  of  Congress  had  been  sanctioned  by 
petitions  bearing  millions  of  signatures;  but  it  is  a 
significant  fact  that  the  alleged  signers  in  Pennsyl- 
vania were  three  times  as  many  as  the  entire  popu- 
lation of  the  State.  Many  people  had  been  counted 
again  and  again  as  members  of  different  organisa- 
tions; and  this  fraud  was  committed  in  other  parts 
of  the  country.  No  attempt  to  find  out  what  the 
people  really  wished  was  made  except  in  Texas;  and 
there  the  majority  was  in  favour  of  opening  the  gates. 
Sabbatarians  acknowledged  publicly  that  they  got 
little  support  from  the  secular  press;  and  much  oppo- 


1 82      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

sition  was  made  to  them  by  some  of  the  great  daihes, 
as  well  as  by  the  organs  of  aggressive  liberalism. 

Sunday  after  Sunday  in  May  the  gates  were  sur- 
rounded by  immense  crowds  who  waited  there 
vainly,  hour  after  hour.  Many  of  them  could  evid- 
ently not  come  on  other  days  ;  and  the  number 
was  so  large  that  the  local  directors,  who  had  been 
elected  by  the  shareholders,  voted  on  May  i6th  for 
opening  both  gates  and  doors.  This  action  was 
warmly  approved  by  the  leading  citizens  of  Chicago 
at  a  public  meeting;  but  Sabbatarians  demanded 
that  visitors  be  kept  out  by  Federal  bayonets.  The 
National  Commissioners,  however,  permitted  the 
entrance  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  people  on 
the  last  Sunday  of  May.  On  Monday,  the  29th,  a 
judge  of  Hebrew  race,  in  a  State  court,  pronounced 
the  contract  with  Congress  null  and  void,  because 
the  money  had  not  been  fully  paid.  He  decided, 
accordingly,  that  there  was  no  excuse  for  violating 
the  Illinois  law,  which  guaranteed  the  right  of  the 
citizens  to  visit  on  Sunday  the  park  where  the  Ex- 
position was  held.  This  ensured  the  admission  of 
visitors  on  June  4th,  and  for  twenty  of  the  re- 
maining twenty-one  Sundays.  The  Government 
buildings  and  many  others,  however,  were  closed; 
numerous  exhibits,  for  instance,  one  of  Bibles,  were 
shrouded  in  white;  machinery  was  not  allowed  to 
run ;  there  were  no  cheap  conveyances  about  the 
ground  ;  and  there  was  little  opportunity  to  get  food 
or  drink.  No  wonder  that  the  Sunday  attendance 
was  comparatively  small ;  but  there  were  one  hun- 
dred and  forty  thousand  paying  visitors  on  October 
22d  and  29th. 


I 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  183 

This  was  a  victory  of  the  press  rather  than  the 
platform.  There  has  been  no  successor  to  the 
original  Liberty  League,  and  no  rival  to  the  Sunday 
Society.  The  latter  was  organised  in  1875  in  Eng- 
land, where  there  has  been  constant  agitation  since 
1853  for  opening  the  British  Museum,  Crystal  Pal- 
ace, and  other  public  institutions  to  their  owners  on 
Sunday.  Dean  Stanley  was  president  of  this  so- 
ciety; and  among  its  members  have  been  Herbert 
Spencer,  Huxley,  Tyndall,  Charles  Reade,  Lecky, 
Miss  Cobbe,  Mrs.  Craik,  and  many  prominent 
clergymen.  The  real  issue  was  stated  clearly  at  one 
of  the  public  meetings  by  Tyndall  as  follows:  "  We 
only  ask  a  part  of  the  Sunday  for  intellectual  im- 
provement." The  justice  of  this  request  has  been 
so  far  admitted  that  on  May  24,  1896,  all  the  na- 
tional museums  and  galleries  in  London  were 
opened  for  the  first  time  on  Sunday.  Among  these 
educational  institutions  from  which  the  owners  are 
no  longer  shut  out  are  the  National  Gallery  and  the 
South  Kensington,  British,  and  Natural  History 
Museums.  Many  libraries  and  museums  in  other 
parts  of  England  were  opened  some  years  earlier. 

VHP  Nowhere  has  the  platform  done  so  much  to 
regenerate  the  pulpit  as  in  Chicago.  Religious  his- 
tory has  been  largely  a  record  of  strife.  There  was 
little  brotherly  feeling  between  clergymen  of  differ- 
ent sects  in  America  before  i860;  but  they  were 
often  brought  into  co-operation  by  the  great  war. 
Even  Unitarians  were  shocked  to  hear  Emerson 
speak  with  reverence  of  Zoroaster  in  1838;  but  he 
won  only  applause  in   1869  when  he  spoke  of  the 


184     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

charm  of  finding  "  identities  in  all  the  religions  of 
men."  This  was  at  a  convention  of  the  Free  Re- 
ligious Association,  which  has  pleaded  from  the  first 
for  "  fellowship  in  religion,"  and  often  made  this 
real  upon  its  platform.  The  secretary,  Mr.  Potter, 
said  in  1872,  that  some  of  his  hearers  would  live 
to  see  "  a  peace  convention"  "  of  representatives 
from  all  the  great  religions  of  the  globe."  Chi- 
cago was  so  peculiarly  cosmopolitan  that  the  local 
managers  of  the  Columbian  Exposition  were  glad 
to  have  products  of  the  various  intellectual  activities 
of  mankind  exhibited  freely.  Ample  provision  was 
made  for  conventions  in  behalf  of  education  and 
reform  ;  but  what  was  to  be  done  for  religion  ? 

An  orthodox  citizen  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Charles  Car- 
roll Bonney,  took  counsel  in  1891  with  Rev.  J.  LI. 
Jones,  a  Unitarian,  who  has  been  preaching  for 
twenty  years  the  essential  oneness  of  all  religions. 
Rabbis,  bishops,  and  doctors  of  divinity  were  con- 
sulted also ;  and  thus  was  formed  the  committee 
which  invited  "  the  leading  representatives  of  the 
great  historic  religions  of  the  world  for  the  first 
time  in  history,"  to  meet  in  friendly  conference 
and  show  what  they  "  hold  and  teach  in  common," 
as  well  as  "  the  important  distinctive  truths  " 
claimed  for  each  religion.  Thus  the  Columbian 
Exposition  offered  an  opportunity  "  to  promote 
and  deepen  the  spirit  of  human  brotherhood  among 
religious  men  of  diverse  faiths,"  "  to  inquire  what 
light  each  religion  has  afforded  or  may  afford  to 
the  other  religions  of  the  world,"  and,  finally,  "  to 
bring  the  nations  of  the  earth  into  a  more  friendly 
fellowship   in  the    hope    of    securing    a    permanent 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  185 

international  peace."  Thus  was  announced  the 
"  Parliament  of  Religions."  All  the  members 
were  to  meet  as  equals  ;  and  there  was  to  be 
neither  controversy  nor  domination.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  and  some  leading  Protest- 
ants in  America  protested  against  abandoning  the 
exclusive  claims  made  for  Christianity;  and  similar 
objections  were  offered  by  the  Sultan  of  Turkey. 
The  Jews,  Buddhists,  and  other  believers  in  the 
ancient  religions  welcomed  the  invitation,  as  did  the 
dignitaries  of  the  Greek  Church,  and  also  the  Pro- 
testants on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  many 
members  of  every  Christian  sect  in  the  United 
States.  The  Catholic  archbishops  of  America  ap- 
pointed a  delegate;  and  many  Methodist  and  Epis- 
copalian bishops  agreed  to  attend  the  Parliament. 

The  sessions  were  held  in  the  permanent  building 
erected  in  the  centre  of  Chicago  to  accommodate 
the  intellectual  portion  of  the  Exposition.  Four 
thousand  people  assembled  on  Monday,  September 
II,  1893,  to  see  a  Roman  Catholic  cardinal  mount 
the  platform  at  10  A.M.,  in  company  with  the  Shinto 
high-priest,  an  archbishop  of  the  Greek  Church,  a 
Hindoo  monk,  a  Confucian  mandarin,  and  a  long 
array  of  Buddhists  and  Taoists  from  the  far  East. 
All  these  dignitaries  wore  gorgeous  robes  of  various 
colours.  With  them  were  a  Parsee  girl,  a  Theoso- 
phist,  a  Moslem  magistrate  from  India,  a  Catholic 
archbishop  from  New  Zealand,  a  Russian  and  an 
African  prince,  a  negro  bishop,  several  Episcopalian 
prelates.  Rabbis,  and  Jewesses,  missionaries  returned 
from  many  lands,  doctors  of  divinity  of  various  Pro- 
testant sects,  and  the  lady  managers  of  the  great 


1 86     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Fair.  A  prominent  Presbyterian  pastor  took  the 
chair,  and  cordial  declarations  of  the  brotherhood  of 
religions  were  made  by  Catholic  archbishops,  the 
Shinto  high-priest,  a  Buddhist  delegate,  and  the 
Confucian  sent  by  the  Emperor  of  China.  Full 
hearing  was  given  in  subsequent  sessions  to  advo- 
cates of  the  Jain  religion,  which  is  perhaps  the 
oldest,  as  well  as  of  the  Parsee,  Jewish,  Moslem, 
Taoist,  and  Vedic  faiths,  besides  a  score  of  the  lead- 
ing Christian  denominations.  The  Parliament  lasted 
seventeen  days;  and  the  audiences  were  so  large 
that  most  of  the  essays  were  repeated  in  overflow 
meetings.  There  were  also  some  forty  congresses 
held  in  smaller  halls  for  speakers  who  could  not  find 
room  on  the  great  platforms.  One  of  these  meet- 
ings was  held  by  Jewesses,  of  whom  nineteen  spoke. 
Some  of  them  were  also  heard  from  the  platform  of 
the  Parliament;  as  were  many  clergywomen. 

Mr,  Underwood  presided  at  the  Congress  of  Evo- 
lutionists. There  was  also  a  convention  of  the  Free 
Religionists, in  connection  with  the  Parliament  which 
they  had  made  possible;  but  "The  Freethought 
Federation  "  could  get  no  chance  to  meet  in  the  great 
building,  or  even  to  sell  pamphlets.  Mr,  Bonney 
had  proposed  a  union  of  all  religions  against  irreli- 
gion  ;  and  this  would  have  been  in  harmony  with  the 
policy  adopted  by  many  States  of  the  American 
Union.  Their  Sunday  laws  and  similar  statutes 
show  a  purpose  of  encouraging  all  the  popular  sects 
alike,  with  little  regard  for  the  rights  of  citizens  out- 
side of  these  favoured  associations.  Most  of  the 
speakers  in  the  Parliament,  especially  the  Buddhists, 
were  so  zealous  for  the  brotherhood  of  man,  that 


Platform  versus  Pulpit  187 

they  protested  against  any  discrimination  on  ac- 
count of  theology.  The  great  audiences  gave  most 
applause  to  the  broadest  declarations;  and  the  few 
utterances  of  Protestant  bigotry  were  plainly  out  of 
place.  The  general  tendency  of  the  Parliament  was 
strongly  in  favour  of  recognising  the  equal  rights  of 
all  mankind,  without  regard  to  belief  or  unbelief. 
All  legislation  inconsistent  with  this  principle  will  be 
swept  away,  sooner  or  later,  by  that  great  wave  of 
public  opinion  which  broke  forth  during  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Religions.  There  the  golden  age  of  religion 
began,  and  war  must  give  place  to  peace. 


CHAPTER  VII 


THE   EVOLUTIONISTS 


WE  have  seen  how  the  Transcendentalists  tried 
to  suppress  vivisection,  in  spite  of  all  it  has 
done  for  the  health  and  happiness  of  mankind.  The 
sanguinary  intolerance  of  Robespierre  and  other  dis- 
ciples of  Rousseau  was  described  earlier  in  this 
volume.  And  the  notorious  inability  of  Carlyle  and 
Garrison  to  argue  calmly  with  those  who  differed 
with  them  further  illustrates  the  tendency  of  con- 
fidence in  one's  own  infallibility.  Only  he  who 
knows  that  he  may  be  wrong  can  admit  consistently 
that  those  who  reject  his  favourite  beliefs  may  be 
right.  The  Parliament  of  Religions  showed  that 
there  has  been  a  growing  conviction  of  the  equal 
rights  of  holders  of  all  forms  of  belief  and  unbelief; 
this  conviction  has  been  promoted  by  recognition 
of  two  great  facts:  first,  that  knowledge  is  based 
upon  experience,  and,  second,  that  no  one's  life  is 
so  complete  that  he  has  nothing  to  learn  from  other 
people.  If  they  do  not  believe  as  he  does,  it  may 
be  merely  because  experience  has  taught  them  truth 
which  he  still  needs  to  learn.  Each  one  knows  only 
in  part ;  and  therefore  no  one  can  afford  to  take  it 
for  granted  that  anyone  else  is  completely  in  error. 

iSS 


The  Evolutionists  189 

I.  This  tolerant  method  of  thought  has  gained 
greatly  in  popularity  since  Darwin  proved  its  capac- 
ity to  solve  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  man.  The 
possibility  that  all  forms  of  life,  even  the  highest, 
are  results  of  a  natural  process  of  gradual  develop- 
ment has  often  been  suggested  by  poets  and  philo- 
sophers. The  probability  was  much  discussed  by 
men  of  science  early  in  the  nineteenth  century;  but 
it  was  not  until  1858  that  sufficient  evidence  was 
presented  to  justify  acceptance  of  evolution  as  any- 
thing better  than  merely  a  theory.  Twenty-one 
years  had  then  elapsed  since  Darwin  began  a  long 
series  of  investigations.  In  the  first  place,  he  col- 
lected an  irresistible  number  of  cases  of  the  influence 
of  environment  in  causing  variations  in  structure, 
and  of  the  tendency  of  such  variations  to  be  in- 
herited. Most  men  who  accepted  these  propositions 
admitted  their  insufficiency  to  account  for  the 
multiplicity  of  species;  but  the  explanation  became 
complete  when  Darwin  discovered  that  any  plant  or 
animal  which  is  peculiarly  fit  for  survival  in  the 
continual  struggle  for  existence  is  likely  to  become 
largely  represented  in  the  next  generation.  A 
spontaneous  variation  which  prolongs  the  life  of 
its  possessor  may  thus  become  not  only  more  com- 
mon but  more  firmly  fixed  in  successive  generations, 
until  a  new  species  is  established. 

To  this  tendency  Darwin  gave  the  name"  natural 
selection";  but  this  term  literally  implies  a  de- 
liberate choice  by  some  superhuman  power.  Her- 
bert Spencer  proposed  the  phrase,  "  survival  of  the 
fittest  ";  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  fit- 
ness is  not  necessarily  that  of  greater  moral  worth. 


190     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

There  may  be  merely  such  a  superiority  in  strength 
and  cunning  as  enables  savages  to  devour  a  mission- 
ary. Spencer  says  that"  the  expression,  *  survival 
of  tire  fittest,'  "  merely  means  "  the  leaving  alive  of 
those  which  are  best  able  to  utilise  surrounding  aids 
to  life,  and  best  able  to  combat  or  avoid  surround- 
ing dang-ers. "  Weeds  are  fitter  than  flowers  for 
natural  growth;  and  Joan  of  Arc  proved  unfit  to 
survive  in  the  contest  against  wicked  men. 

This  discovery  of  Darwin's  made  it  his  duty  to 
avow  a  view  which  was  so  unpopular  that  he  felt  as 
if  he  were  about  "  confessing  a  murder."  He  was 
making  "  a  big  book  "  out  of  the  facts  he  had  col- 
lected, when  a  manuscript  statement  of  conclusions 
like  his  own  was  sent  him  by  Wallace,  who  had  dis- 
covered independently  the  great  fact  of  the  survival 
of  the  fittest.  Darwin  wished  at  first  to  resign  all 
claim  to  originality;  but  his  friends  insisted  on  his 
taking  a  share  of  the  honour  of  the  discovery.  Ac- 
cordingly an  essay,  which  he  had  written  in  1844, 
was  read  in  company  with  that  sent  him  by  Wallace 
before  the  Linnaean  Society,  in  London,  on  July  i, 
1858.  The  importance  of  the  new  view  was  so  well 
understood  that  the  entire  first  edition,  amounting 
to  1250  copies,  of  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species,  which 
book  he  wrote  soon  after,  was  sold  on  the  day  of 
publication,  November  24,  1859.  Other  editions 
followed  rapidly,  with  translations  into  many  lan- 
guages. No  book  of  the  century  has  been  more 
revolutionary. 

IL  Theologians  still  insisted  on  the  supernatural 
creation  of  each  species  of  plant  or  animal,  and  es- 


The  Evolutionists  191 

pecially  of  the  human  race,  in  its  final  form.  The 
inference  that  man  had  been  developed  by  natural 
processes  out  of  some  lower  animal,  was  easily  drawn 
from  the  Origin  of  Species,  though  not  expressly 
stated  therein ;  and  there  was  great  alarm  among 
the  clergy.  An  Anglican  bishop,  who  was  nick- 
named "  Soapy  Sam  "  on  account  of  his  sub- 
serviency to  public  opinion,  declared  in  a  leading 
quarterly  that  Darwin  held  views  "  absolutely  in- 
compatible "  with  the  Bible,  and  tending  to 
banish  God  from  nature."  Other  prominent 
Episcopalians  called  the  new  book  "  an  attempt 
to  dethrone  God,"  and  propagate  infidelity.  Card- 
inal Manning  denounced  the  "  brutal  philosophy  " 
which  taught  that  **  There  is  no  God,  and  the  ape  is 
our  Adam. ' '  Both  Catholics  and  Protestants  started 
anti-Darwinian  societies  in  London,  and,  in  1863, 
Huxley  saw  "  the  whole  artillery  of  the  pulpit 
brought  upon  the  doctrine  of  evolution  and  its  sup- 
porters." The  example  of  England  was  followed 
promptly  by  France  and  Germany.  America  was 
distracted  by  civil  war;  and  her  men  of  science 
were  so  few  and  timid  that  the  denunciations  of 
Darwinism  which  were  prompted  by  the  theo- 
logical and  metaphysical  prejudices  of  Agassiz 
were  generally  accepted  as  final  decisions.  The 
position  of  the  Unitarians  and  Transcendentalists 
may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that,  during  a  period 
of  nearly  three  years  after  the  publication,  of  the 
Origin  of  Species,  nothing  was  said  about  Darwin- 
ism in  the  extremely  liberal  divinity  school  where 
I  was  then  a  student.  Evolutionism  had  to  look 
for     advocates    in    America    to     Spiritualists    like 


192      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Denton  or  unbelievers  like  Underwood  at  that 
period. 

Clerical  opposition  increased  the  general  unwilling- 
ness of  scientific  men  to  snatch  up  new  views.  As 
early  as  1863,  however,  Darwin  received  the  support 
of  the  famous  geologist,  Lyell,  as  well  as  of  a 
younger  naturalist  destined  to  achieve  even  more 
brilliant  success.  Huxley  has  distinguished  himself 
in  arguments  against  the  scientific  value  of  the  Bible. 
Among  his  other  exploits  was  a  demonstration  that 
a  chain,  in  which  no  link  is  missing,  connects  the 
horse  with  a  small,  extinct  quadruped  possessed  of 
comparatively  few  equine  peculiarities.  In  this  case, 
transformation  of  species  is  an  undeniable  fact. 
Other  young  naturalists  in  England,  as  well  as  in 
Germany,  gradually  became  willing  to  push  the  new 
view  to  its  last  results ;  and  Darwin  was  encouraged 
to  publish,  in  1871,  his  elaborate  account  of  the 
origin  of  our  race,  entitled  TJie  Descent  of  Man. 
The  wrath  of  the  churches  blazed  forth  once  more; 
and  Gladstone  entered  the  arena.  Englishmen 
ventured  no  longer  to  say  much  about  the  differ- 
ences between  Moses  and  Darwin;  for  the  obvious 
retort  would  have  been,  "  So  much  the  worse  for 
Moses."  A  German  Lutheran,  however,  bade  his 
congregation  choose  between  Christ  and  Darwin; 
and  the  infallibility  of  Moses  was  asserted  so  zeal- 
ously by  a  Parisian  Catholic  as  to  win  formal  thanks 
from  the  Pope. 

America  was  now  wide  awake ;  irreligious  tenden- 
cies were  assigned  to  evolutionism  by  the  president 
of  Yale,  as  well  as  by  some  Princeton  professors; 
and  one  of  these  latter  warned  believers  in  the  de- 


I 


The  Evolutionists  193 

velopment  of  man  that  they  would  be  punished  as 
infidels  after  death.  The  verdict  of  men  of  science 
has  at  last  been  pronounced  so  plainly  as  to  be 
accepted  by  thoroughly  educated  people  in  the 
Northern  States;  but  the  Southerners  are  more 
bigoted.  Even  so  late  as  1894,  a  professor  of  bio- 
logy at  the  University  of  Texas  was  dismissed,  in 
violation  of  contract,  for  teaching  evolutionism.  A 
similar  offence  had  been  found  suflficient,  ten  years 
before,  by  the  Presbyterians  of  South  Carolina,  for 
driving  a  devout  member  of  their  own  sect  from  his 
chair  in  a  theological  seminary.  That  popular  writer 
on  geology,  Winchell,  was  requested  in  1878  by  a 
Methodist  bishop  to  resign  a  professorship  at  Nash- 
ville, Tennessee,  where  he  had  expressed  doubt  of 
the  descent  of  all  men  from  Adam.  The  geologist 
refused  to  resign,  and  the  chair  was  suppressed. 

Voltaire's  chief  grievance  was  the  intolerance  of 
Christianity.  Paine  and  Bradlaugh  complained  that 
there  was  much  immorality  in  the  Old  Testament. 
The  niost  damaging  of  recent  attacks  have  been 
made  in  the  name  of  science.  Genesis  and  geology 
had  been  found  irreconcilable  before  the  appearance 
of  Darwinism ;  but  the  new  system  widened  the 
breach.  The  most  serious  offence  to  the  theologian, 
however,  was  that  he  could  not  longer  point  with- 
out danger  of  contradiction  to  beneficial  peculiarities 
in  the  structure  of  plants  and  animals,  as  marks  of 
the  divine  hand.  The  old  argument  about  design 
was  met  by  a  demonstration  that  such  peculiarities 
were  apt  to  arise  spontaneously,  and  become  per- 
manent under  the  pressure  of  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence. The  theologian  has  had  to  retreat  to  the 
13 


194     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

position  that  Darwinism  has  not  accounted  for  the 
soul,  the  intellect,  and  especially  the  intuitions, 

III.  Whether  Darwin  succeeded  or  not  in  this 
part  of  his  work  is  not  so  important  as  the  fact  that, 
several  years  before  he  announced  his  great  dis- 
covery, an  elaborate  account  of  the  process  by  which 
the  powers  of  thought  and  feeling  have  been  de- 
veloped gradually  out  of  the  lowest  forms  of  con- 
sciousness was  given  by  Herbert  Spencer.  The 
first  edition  of  his  Principles  of  Psychology,  pub- 
lished in  1855,  carried  the  explanation  so  far  as  to 
show  the  real  origin  and  value  of  the  intuitions. 
Their  importance  had  been  almost  ignored  by  think- 
ers who  relied  entirely  on  individual  experience,  and 
greatly  overrated  by  the  Transcendentalists;  but 
neither  set  of  philosophers  could  explain  these  mys- 
terious ideas.  The  infallibility  of  conscience  is  not 
to  be  reconciled  with  such  facts  as  that  Paul  thought 
it  his  duty  to  persecute  the  Christians,  or  that  Gar- 
rison, Sumner,  John  Brown,  and  Stonewall  Jack- 
son were  among  the  most  conscientious  men  of 
the  century.  The  ancient  Greeks  agreed  in  recog- 
nising justice,  but  not  benevolence,  among  the 
cardinal  virtues;  precisely  the  opposite  error  was 
made  by  Kant  and  Miss  Cobbe ;  and  a  tabular 
view  of  all  the  lists  of  fundamental  intuitions 
which  have  been  made  out  by  noted  metaphysi- 
cians might  be  mistaken  for  a  relic  from  the  Tower 
of  Babel.  Emerson's  religious  instincts  were  not  so 
much  impressed  as  Parker's  with  the  personality 
of  God  and  immortality;  but  the  difference  seems 
almost  insignificant  when  we  remember  what  ideas 


I 


The  Evolutionists  195 

of  theology  arose  spontaneously  in  New  Zealand. 
How  widely  the  intuition  of  beauty  varies  may  be 
judged  from  the  inability  of  sesthetic  Chinamen  to 
admire  the  white  teeth  and  rosy  cheeks  of  an  English 
belle.  Intuition  is  plainly  not  an  infallible  oracle; 
but  is  it  merely  a  misleading  prejudice? 

The  puzzle  was  solved  when  Spencer  showed  that 
intuition  is  a  result  of  the  experience  of  the  race. 
Courage,  for  instance,  was  so  important  for  the  sur- 
vival of  a  primitive  tribe  in  the  struggle  against  its 
neighbours,  that  ev^ery  man  found  his  comfort  and 
reputation  depend  mainly  on  his  prowess.  If  he 
fought  desperately  he  gained  wealth,  honour,  and 
plenty  of  wives;  but  cowards  were  maltreated  by 
other  men  and  scorned  even  by  the  women.  The 
bravest  man  left  the  largest  number  of  offspring; 
and  every  boy  was  told  so  early  and  earnestly  to  be 
courageous  as  to  develop  a  pugnacious  instinct, 
which  has  come  down  to  the  present  day  in  much 
greater  strength  than  is  needed  for  the  ordinary  de- 
mands of  civilised  life.  We  love  war  too  much, 
because  our  ancestors  were  in  danger  of  not  loving 
it  enough  for  their  own  safety.  As  courage  ceased 
to  be  the  one  all-important  excellence,  industry, 
fidelity,  and  honesty  were  found  so  useful  as  to  be 
encouraged  with  a  care  which  has  done  much  to 
mould  conscience  into  its  present  shape.  Other 
virtues  were  inculcated  in  the  same  way.  The 
welfare  of  the  family  was  found  to  depend  largely 
on  the  fidelity  of  wife  to  husband  ;  and  the  result 
was  that  chastity  has  held  a  much  higher  place  in 
the  feminine  than  in  the  masculine  conscience.  So 
our  religious  instincts  owe  much  of  their  strength 


196     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

to  the  zeal  with  which  our  ancestors  sought  to  avert 
the  divine  wrath.  Thus  we  have  ideas  which  were 
originally  only  vague  inferences  from  primitive  ex- 
perience, but  which  have  gradually  gained  such 
strength  and  definiteness,  that  they  have  much 
more  power  than  if  we  had  thought  them  out  un- 
aided by  the  past.  Spencer  himself  says,  "  There 
have  been,  and  still  are,  developing  in  the  race  cer- 
tain fundamental  moral  intuitions  "  which  "  are  the 
results  of  accumulated  experiences  of  utility,  gradu- 
ally organised  and  inherited,"  but  "  have  come  to 
be  quite  independent  of  conscious  experience." 
They  **  have  no  apparent  basis  in  the  individual 
experiences  of  utility";  and  thus  conscience  has 
acquired  its  characteristic  disinterestedness. 

When  we  feel  this  inner  prompting  to  a  brave  or 
honest  action  which  must  be  done  promptly  or  left 
undone,  it  is  our  duty  to  act  without  hesitation  or 
regard  to  our  own  interest.  We  are  serving  our 
race  in  the  way  which  its  experience  has  taught. 
Suppose,  however,  that  there  is  time  enough  for 
deliberation,  and  that  we  see  a  possibility  of  harm 
to  our  neighbours,  our  family,  or  even  to  our  own 
highest  welfare.  In  this  case,  we  ought  to  compare 
the  good  and  evil  results  carefully.  We  should  also 
do  well  to  consider  what  was  the  decision  of  the 
consciences  of  the  best  and  wisest  men  under  similar 
circumstances.  If  we  neglect  these  precautions,  we 
may  be  in  danger  of  following  not  conscience  but 
passion.  There  is  also  a  possibility  that  conscience 
may  embody  only  such  primitive  ideas  of  duty  as 
have  since  been  found  incorrect.  This  has  often 
been  the    case   Avith   persecutors  and  monarchists. 


I 


The  Evolutionists  197 

Generosity  is  still  too  apt  to  take  an  impulsive  and 
reckless  form  which  perpetuates  pauperism.  Spen- 
cer has  taught  us  that  conscience  is  worthy  not  only 
of  obedience,  but  of  education. 

Spencer's  attempt  to  substitute  a  thoughtful  for  a 
thoughtless  goodness  of  character  has  been  much 
aided  by  his  protest  against  such  undiscriminating 
exhortations  to  self-sacrifice  as  are  constantly  heard 
from  the  pulpit.  Good  people,  and  especially  good 
v.'omen,  welcome  the  idea  of  giving  up  innocent 
pleasure  and  enduring  needless  pain.  The  glory  of 
martyrdom  blinds  them  to  the  fact  that,  as  Spencer 
says  in  his  PsycJiology,  "  Pains  are  the  correlatives 
of  actions  injurious  to  the  organism,  while  pleasures 
are  the  correlatives  of  actions  conducive  to  its 
welfare."  In  other  words,  "  Pleasures  are  the  in- 
centives to  life-supporting  acts,  and  pains  the  deter- 
rents from  life-destroying  acts."  Abstinence  from 
pleasure  may  involve  loss  of  health.  Self-sacrifice 
is  scarcely  possible  without  some  injury  to  mind  or 
body;  as  is  the  case  with  people  who  make  it  a 
religious  duty  to  read  no  interesting  books  and  take 
scarcely  any  exercise  on  Sunday.  It  is  further  true 
that  "  The  continual  acceptance  of  benefits  at  the 
expense  of  a  fellow-being  is  morally  injurious  "  ;  as 
"  The  continual  giving  up  of  pleasures  and  continual 
submission  to  pains  are  physically  injurious. ' '  Blind 
self-sacrifice  "  curses  giver  and  receiver — physically 
deteriorates  the  one  and  morally  deteriorates  the 
other,"  "  the  outcome  of  the  policy  being  destruc- 
tion of  the  worthy  in  making  worse  the  un- 
worthy." No  wonder  that  men  are  stronger,  and 
also    more    selfish,  than   women.     Almost  all  self- 


198      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

sacrifice  involves  loss  of  individual  liberty..  The 
subjection  of  women  has  been  deepened  by  their 
readiness  to  sacrifice  themselves  to  those  they  love; 
their  fondness  for  martyrdom  often  leads  them  into 
the  sin  of  marrying  without  love;  and  generosity 
of  heart  facilitates  ruin.  Women  would  really  be 
more  virtuous  if  they  felt  less  obligation  to  their 
lovers  and  more   to  their  race. 

IV.  Spencer's  psychological  discoveries  were  co- 
rollaries to  that  great  principle  of  evolution  of  which 
he  made  the  following  announcement  as  early  as 
1857  in  the  Westminster  Review.  After  declaring 
his  belief  in  "  that  divergence  of  many  races  from 
one  race  which  we  inferred  must  have  continually 
been  occurring  during  geologic  time,"  he  stated 
that  "  The  law  of  all  progress  is  to  be  found 
in  these  varied  evolutions  of  the  homogeneous  into 
the  heterogeneous,"  or  in  other  words,  "  out  of 
the  simple  into  the  complex."  The  discoveries 
of  Darwin  and  Wallace  were  not  announced  be- 
fore 1858,  but  Spencer  avowed  in  1852  his  belief 
in  "  the  theory  of  evolution  "  or  "  development 
hypothesis,"  according  to  which  "  complex  or- 
ganic forms  may  have  arisen  by  successive  modi- 
fications out  of  simple  ones."  It  was  without 
any  aid  or  suggestion  from  Darwin  that  Spencer's 
statement  of  the  law  of  evolution  was  brought  into 
the  final  form  published  in  1862.  Evolution  was 
then  described  as  change,  not  only  from  the  simple 
to  the  complex,  but  also  from  the  chaotic  to  the 
concentric  and  consolidated,  or,  in  Spencer's  own 
words,  "  from  an  indefinite  incoherent  homogeneity 


The  Evolutionists  199 

to  a  definite  coherent  heterogeneity."  Progress,  he 
says,  consists  in  integration  as  well  as  differentiation. 
There  is  an  increase  in  permanence  and  definiteness 
as  well  as  in  variety.  Higher  forms  are  not  only 
more  complex  and  unlike  than  lower  ones,  but  also 
more  stable  and  more  strongly  marked. 

Spencer  has  been  represented  by  some  Transcend- 
entalists  as  Darwin's  pupil;  but  the  whole  system 
just  described  would,  in  all  probability,  have  been 
built  up  in  substantially  its  present  form,  if  both 
Darwin  and  Wallace  had  kept  their  discoveries  to 
themselves.  The  only  difference  would  have  been 
that  Spencer  could  not  have  been  sustained  by  such 
a  great  mass  of  evidence.  All  these  facts  were  col- 
lected by  Darwin  merely  to  prove  the  physical  de- 
velopment of  men  and  other  animals  from  lower 
forms  of  life ;  but  Spencer  showed  that  all  the 
phenomena  of  thought  and  feeling,  as  well  as  of  as- 
tronomy, geology,  and  chemistry,  are  results  of  the 
great  laws  of  integration  and  differentiation.  All 
human  history  and  social  relations  can  be  accounted 
for  in  this  way.  And  if  this  extension  had  not  been 
given  to  the  principle  of  evolution,  Darwin's  dis- 
coveries might  soon  have  ceased  to  have  much 
interest,  except  for  students  of  natural  history. 
Each  of  the  two  great  evolutionists  helped  the  other 
gain  influence;  but  their  co-operation  was  almost  as 
unintentional  as  that  of  two  luminaries  which  form 
a  double  star. 

V.  Spencer  has  done  much  to  diminish  intolerance, 
by  teaching,  as  early  as  1862,  that  all  religions  are 
necessary  steps  in  the  upward  march  of  evolution. 


200     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

He  has  also  attempted  to  reconcile  religion  and 
science,  by  teaching  that  the  one  all-essential  be- 
lief is  in  a  great  unknowable  reality,  which  is  not 
only  inscrutable  but  inconceivable.  In  writing 
about  this  supreme  power,  he  uses  capitals  with  a 
constancy  which  would  look  like  an  assumption  of 
knowledge,  if  the  same  habit  were  not  followed  in 
regard  to  many  other  words  of  much  less  import- 
ance. He  admits  that  "  We  cannot  decide  between 
the  alternative  suppositions,  that  phenomena  are 
due  to  the  variously  conditioned  workings  of  a  single 
force,  and  that  they  are  due  to  the  conflict  of 
two  forces."  "  Matter  cannot  be  conceived,"  he 
says,  "  except  as  manifesting  forces  of  attraction 
and  repulsion";  but  he  also  says  that  these  antag- 
onistic and  conflicting  forces  "  must  not  be  taken 
as  realities  but  as  our  symbols  of  the  reality," 
"  the  forms  under  which  the  workings  of  the  un- 
knowable are  cognisable."  This  creed  is  accepted 
by  many  American  evolutionists.  It  is  the  doctrine 
of  one  of  Spencer's  most  elaborate  and  brilliant  in- 
terpreters. Professor  John  Fiske,  of  such  popular 
clergymen  as  Doctors  Minot  J.  Savage  and  Lyman 
Abbott,  and  of  many  of  the  members  of  that  ener- 
getic organisation,  "  The  Brooklyn  Ethical  Asso- 
ciation." TJie  Open  Court  of  Chicago  and  other 
periodicals  are  working  avowedly  for  "  the  Religion 
of  Science  "  ;  but  that  is  not  to  be  established  with- 
out much  closer  conformity  to  the  old-fashioned 
creeds  and  ceremonies  than  has  been  made  by  Spen- 
cer. His  later  works  seem  more  orthodox  than  his 
earlier  ones;  but  his  final  decision  is  that  "  The  very 
notions,  origin,    cause,   and    purpose,   are  relations 


The  Evolutionists  201 

belonging  to  human  thought,  which  are  probably 
irrelevant  to  the  ultimate  reahty. "  He  has  also 
admitted  that  the  proposition,  "  Evolution  is  caused 
by  mind,"  "  cannot  be  rendered  into  thought." 
And  he  is  right  in  saying  that  he  has  nowhere  sug- 
gested worship. 

Whether  he  has  proposed  a  reconciliation,  or  only 
a  compromise,  whether  evolutionism  will  ever  be  as 
popular  in  the  pulpit  as  Transcendentalism,  and 
whether  there  is  not  more  reality  in  the  forces  of 
attraction  and  repulsion  than  in  Spencer's  great  un- 
knowable, are  problems  which  I  will  not  discuss. 
Darwin  was  an  agnostic  like  Huxley,  who  held  that 
"  We  know  nothing  of  what  may  be  beyond  phe- 
nomena," and  "  Science  commits  suicide  when  she 
adopts  a  creed."  Huxley  pronounced  the  course 
of  nature  "  neither  moral  nor  immoral,  but  non- 
moral,  and  declared  that  "  The  ethical  progress  of 
society  depends  not  on  imitating  the  cosmic  process 
but  on  combating  it."  The  severity  of  his  criticism 
of  the  Gospel  narratives  called  out  threats  of  prose- 
cution for  blasphemy.  He  avowed  "  entire  concur- 
rence "  with  Haeckel,  who  holds  that  belief  in  a 
personal  God  and  an  immortal  soul  are  incompatible 
with  the  fundamental  principles  of  evolution.  The 
German  scientist  argues  in  his^  elaborate  history  of 
the  development  of  animals,  that  life  is  no  manifest- 
ation of  divine  power,  working  with  benevolent 
purpose,  but  merely  the  necessary  result  of  uncon- 
scious forces,  inherent  in  the  chemical  constitu- 
tion and  physical  properties  of  matter,  and  acting 
mechanically  according  to  immutable  laws.  The 
position  of    Haeckel   and   Huxley   is  all  the   more 


202      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

significant  because  Frederic  Harrison  knows  of 
"  no  single  thinker  in  Europe  who  has  come  forward 
to  support  this  reHgion  of  an  unknown  cause." 

VI.  A  much  more  important  controversy  has 
been  called  out  by  Spencer's  theory  of  the  limits  of 
government.  As  early  as  1842  he  proposed  "  the 
limitation  of  state  action  to  the  maintenance  of 
equitable  relations  among  citizens."  His  Social 
Statics  demanded,  in  1850,  as  a  necessary  condition 
of  high  development,  "  the  liberty  of  each,  limited 
only  by  the  like  liberty  of  all."  His  ideal  would 
be  a  government  where  "  every  man  has  freedom 
to  do  all  he  wills,  provided  he  infringes  not  the  equal 
freedom  of  any  other  man."  These  propositions 
are  repeated  in  the  revised  edition  of  1892,  which 
differs  from  the  earlier  one  in  omitting  a  denial  of 
the  right  of  private  property  in  land,  and  also  a  de- 
mand for  female  suffrage.  How  far  Spencer  had 
changed  his  views  may  be  seen  in  his  volume  on 
Justice.  Both  editions  of  Social  Statics  deny  the 
right  of  governments  to  support  churches,  public 
schools,  boards  of  health,  poorhouses,  lighthouses, 
or  mints.  Spencer  would  have  titles  to  land  guar- 
anteed by  the  State,  and  property-holders  protected 
against  unjust  lawsuits;  but  otherwise  the  govern- 
ment ought  to  confine  itself,  he  thinks,  to  managing 
the  army,  navy,  and  police. 

This  position  is  defended  by  an  appeal  to  the 
fact  that  the  citizen  is  most  energetic  and  intelli- 
gent where  he  is  most  free  to  act  for  himself.  No 
American  is  as  helpless  before  pestilence  or  famine  as 
a  Russian  peasant,  or  as  afraid  to  go  to  a  burning 


The  Evolutionists  203 

house  until  summoned  by  the  police.  A  despotism 
may  begin  with  a  strong  army;  but  it  ends,  like  the 
Roman  Empire,  in  the  weakness  which  it  has 
brought  on  by  crushing  the  spirit  of  its  soldiers. 
Strong  governments  make  weak  men.  Never  was 
there  a  mightier  army  than  was  given  by  the  French 
Republic  to  Napoleon.  Industrial  prosperity  de- 
pends even  more  closely  than  military  glory  on  the 
energy  of  men  who  have  been  at  liberty  to  think 
and  act  freely.  People  develop  most  vigorously 
where  they  are  least  meddled  with.  The  average 
man  knows  much  more  than  his  rulers  do  about  his 
own  private  business;  and  he  is  active  to  promote  it 
in  ways  which  secure  the  general  welfare. 

Great  stress  is  laid  not  only  in  Social  Statics  but 
in  Spencer's  book  on  TJie  Man  versus  the  State,  and 
in  several  essays,  on  the  many  times  that  the  British 
Government  has  increased  an  evil  by  trying  to  cure 
it.  What  is  said  about  its  extravagance  will  not 
surprise  any  American  who  remembers  what  vast 
sums  are  squandered  by  Congress.  The  post-ofifice 
is  often  spoken  of  as  proof  that  our  Government 
could  run  our  railroads;  but  one  of  Boston's  best 
postmasters  said,  "  No  private  business  could  be 
managed  like  this  without  going  into  bankruptcy." 
The  British  Government  has  a  monopoly  of  the 
telegraph ;  and  introduction  of  the  telephone  was 
very  difficult  in  consequence.  In  Victoria,  the 
Postmaster-General  has  abused  his  privileges  so 
much  as  to  appoint  a  "  sporting  agent  "  to  tele- 
graph the  results  of  a  horse-race;  and  this  same 
highly  protectionist  colony  has  had  laws  forbidding 
any  shop  to  be  open  after  7  P.M.,  except  on  Satur- 


204      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

day,  and  any  woman  to  work  more  than  forty-eight 
hours  a  week  in  any  factory.  How  governments 
interfered  in  former  centuries  with  people's  right  to 
feed,  clothe,  employ,  and  amuse  themselves,  seems 
almost  inconceivable  at  present. 

Persecution  was  one  among  many  forms  of  mis- 
chievous meddling.  Locke,  in  arguing  for  toleration 
in  1689,  was  obliged  to  take  the  ground  that  "  The 
whole  jurisdiction  of  the  magistrate  reaches  only" 
to  securing  unto  all  the  people  "  life,  liberty, 
health,"  and  also  "  outward  things  such  as  money, 
lands,  houses,  furniture,  and  the  like."  "  Govern- 
ment," he  said,  "  hath  no  end  but  preservation, 
and  therefore  can  never  have  a  right  to  destroy,  en- 
slave, or  designedly  to  impoverish  the  subject." 
Clearer"  language  was  used  by  those  French  patriots 
who  declared  in  the  Constitution  of  1791  that  liberty 
consists  in  ability  to  do  everything  which  brings  no 
harm  to  others ;  and,  two  years  afterwards,  that  the 
liberty  of  each  citizen  should  extend  to  where  that 
of  some  other  citizen  begins.  Nearly  fifty  years 
later,  a  theory  very  like  Spencer's  was  published  by 
Wilhelm  von  Humboldt,  brother  of  the  great  natur- 
alist. Among  the  many  writers  who  have  held  that 
government  ought  not  to  be  merely  limited  but 
repudiated  totally  was  Thoreau.  It  was  in  1854 
that  this  zealous  abolitionist  publicly  renounced  his 
allegiance  to  a  great  anti-slavery  commonwealth, 
and  that  he  asserted,  in  Waldcn,  the  necessity  of 
preserving  individual  liberty  by  conforming  as  little 
as  possible  to  any  social  usages,  even  that  of  work- 
ing regularly  in  order  to  support  one's  self  and 
family  in  comfort.     That  same  year,  Spencer  showed 


The  Evolutionists  205 

in  his  essay  on  Ulanjicrs  and  Fashion  the  difference 
between  a  regulation  by  which  public  opinion  tries 
to  prevent  rude  people  from  making  themselves  un- 
necessarily disagreeable  to  their  neighbours,  and  one 
which  encourages  dissipation  by  arbitrarily  check- 
ing innocent  amusement.  Even  in  the  latter  case, 
however,  there  is,  as  he  says,  but  little  gain  from 
any  solitary  nonconformity.  Reform  must  be  car- 
ried on  in  co-operation. 

That  powerful  assailant  of  Transcendentalism, 
John  Stuart  Mill,  was  not  an  evolutionist;  but  it 
was  largely  due  to  his  liberal  aid  that  the  system  of 
differentiation  and  integration  was  published.  This 
generosity  was  consistent  with  his  own  position,  that 
all  opinions  ought  to  have  a  hearing,  and  especially 
those  which  are  novel  and  unpopular,  for  they  are 
peculiarly  likely  to  contain  some  exposure  of  ancient 
error  or  revelation  of  new  truth.  This  fact  was  set 
forth  with  such  ability  in  his  book,  On  Liberty,  in 
1859,  tl^^t  several  long  passages  were  quoted  in  the 
public  protest,  delivered  in  Ohio  five  years  later  by 
Vallandigham,  against  the  war  then  carried  on  for 
bringing  back  the  seceded  States.  Mill  holds  that 
neither  government  nor  public  opinion  ought  to  in- 
terfere with  any  individual,  except  "  to  prevent 
doing  harm  to  others."  He  says,  for  instance,  that 
there  would  be  no  tyranny  in  forcing  parents  to  let 
their  children  have  education  enough  to  become 
safe  members  of  society.  Such  a  law  could  scarcely 
be  justified  by  the  principle  of  giving  all  the  liberty 
to  each  compatible  with  the  like  liberty  of  all. 
Among  the  restrictions  which  Mill  mentions  as  op- 
pressive are  those  in  England  and  America  against 


2o6     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

selling  liquor,  gambling,  and  Sunday  amusements. 
He  admits  the  difficulty  of  deciding  "  how  far  liberty 
may  be  legitimately  invaded  for  the  prevention  of 
crime. 

VII.  It  was  in  full  conformity  with  the  principles 
of  Mill,  Spencer,  and  Locke  that  the  Constitution  of 
Louisiana,  as  revised  in  1879,  declared  that  the  only 
legitimate  object  of  government  "  is  to  protect  the 
citizen  in  the  enjoyment  of  life,  liberty,  and  pro- 
perty. When  it  assumes  other  functions,  it  is 
usurpation  and  oppression,"  Similar  sentiments 
have  been  occasionally  expressed  in  political  plat- 
forms. Such  narrow  limits  have  not,  so  far  as  I 
know,  ever  been  observed  in  the  United  States  or 
in  any  other  civilised  land.  Few  people  love  liberty 
so  much  as  not  to  be  willing  that  the  state  should, 
give  them  security  against  conflagration  and  con- 
tagious disease.  There  is  also  a  general  demand 
for  such  safety  as  is  given  by  roads,  streets,  bridges, 
lighthouses,  and  life-saving  stations.  The  necessity 
of  hospitals,  asylums,  and  poorhouses  is  manifest. 
If  all  this  expense  had  to  be  met  by  public-spirited 
individuals,  it  is  probable  that  their  wealth  would 
prove  insufficient.  It  is  further  necessary  for  the 
public  safety  that  there  should  be  compulsory  vac- 
cination during  epidemics  of  smallpox,  confinement 
of  dangerous  lunatics  and  tramps,  rescue  of  children 
from  vicious  parents,  and  maintenance  of  what 
ought  not  to  be  called  compulsory  but  guaranteed 
education.  Marriage  has  to  be  made  binding  for 
the  protection  of  mothers  as  well  as  children.  The 
thirst  for  drink   needs  at  least  as  much  restraint 


The  Evolutionists  207 

as  is  kept  up  in  Scandinavia.  And  the  tendency 
of  bad  money  to  drive  out  good  is  strong  enough 
to  justify  laws  against  circulation  of  depreciated 
currency. 

Public  schools  are  particularly  important  in  Amer- 
ica, where  presidential  and  congressional  elections 
are  apt  to  turn  on  financial  issues  which  can  scarcely 
be  understood  by  men  not  thoroughly  educated. 
Spencer's  objections  apply  more  closely  to  the 
European  system,  that  of  centralisation  of  manage- 
ment, than  to  the  American.  It  is  well  to  know 
also  that  he  was  misled  by  a  hasty  reference,  per- 
haps by  some  assistant,  to  an  English  statistician 
named  Fletcher.  This  high  authority  did  admit,  in 
1849,  ^hat  he  found  "  a  superficial  evidence  against 
instruction."  He  went  on,  however,  to  say  much 
which  is  not  mentioned  in  Social  Statics,  and  which 
proved  the  evidence  to  be  only  superficial.  By 
classifying  crimes  according  to  enormity,  he  showed 
that  the  worst  were  most  frequent  in  the  least  edu- 
cated districts.  He  also  discovered  that  those 
counties  in  England  where  ability  to  sign  the  mar- 
riage register  was  most  common  were  most  free 
from  paupers,  dangerous  criminals,  and  illegitimate 
children.  * '  The  conclusion  is  therefore  irresistible, 
says  Fletcher,  "  that  education  is  essential  to  the 
security  of  modern  society."  Most  of  the  other 
testimony  brought  forward  in  Social  Statics  is  in- 
validated by  Fletcher's  method;  and  Spencer  added 
nothing  in  the  second  edition  to  the  insufficient 
statements  in  the  first. 

British  education  has   improved  greatly  in  both 
quality  and  quantity  since  1876;  but  the  prisons  of 


2o8     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

England  and  Wales  had  only  two-thirds  as  many  in- 
mates in  1890  as  in  1878,  and  only  one-half  as  large 
a  part  of  the  population.  The  most  dangerous 
prisoners  were  only  one-third  as  numerous  in  1890 
and  1 891  as  forty-five  years  earlier;  and  the  per- 
centage of  forgers  only  one-tenth  as  great  as  in  1857. 
We  ought  further  to  remember  the  almost  complete 
.unanimity  of  opinion  in  favour  of  free  education 
wherever  it  is  universal. 

Public  schools  in  America  are  all  the  more  useful 
because  they  are  superintended  by  town  and  city 
officials,  elected  in  great  part  by  men  who  know 
them  personally.  This  is  also  the  case  with  the 
boards  of  health,  and  the  managers  of  poorhouses, 
cemeteries,  public  libraries,  and  parks.  Among 
other  subjects  of  local  self-government  are  the  roads, 
bridges,  streets,  and  sewers.  Our  large  cities  are 
notoriously  misgoverned,  but  it  will  be  easier  to 
raise  the  character  of  the  officials  than  to  contract 
their  powers.  Much  is  to  be  hoped  from  civil  serv- 
ice reform,  proportional  representation,  and  non- 
partisan elections.  Town  affairs  are  usually  so 
carefully  looked  after  by  people  not  in  office  as  to 
be  managed  for  the  public  welfare.  Both  in  towns 
and  cities  the  tendency  is  to  enlarge  rather  than 
contract  the  functions  of  the  government.  A  pro- 
posal that  any  city  should  let  tenements  or  sell  coal 
more  cheaply  than  is  done  by  individuals,  would 
seem  to  be  for  the  advantage  of  everybody  except  a 
few  payers  of  heavy  taxes.  The  majority  of  voters 
would  care  little  about  increase  of  taxation,  in  com- 
parison with  the  prospect  of  more  demand  for  labour 
and  greater  activity  in  business.      It  is  easy  to  make 


The  Evolutionists  209 

extravagance  popular  where  the  majority  rules. 
Our  State  constitutions  would  probably  make  it  im- 
possible for  coal  to  be  sold  or  tenements  let  by  cities 
and  towns ;  but  these  latter  often  carry  on  gas-works, 
water-works,  electric  roads,  and  other  highly  bene- 
ficial industries.  This  may  be  necessary  to  check 
the  rapacity  of  corporations;  but  otherwise  there  is 
too  much  danger  of  extravagance,  discouragement 
of  individual  enterprise,  and  delay  in  improving  the 
processes  monopolised  by  the  municipality.  Some 
evils  would  be  lessened  by  a  transfer  of  the  control 
of  lighthouses  and  life-saving  stations  from  the 
national  Government  to  that  of  the  nearest  cities,  or 
else  of  single  States. 

Our  people  are  much  better  able  to  judge  of  the 
success  of  State  than  of  Federal  legislation  and 
management.  Of  course  the  chief  duties  of  the 
State  are  to  pass  laws  for  the  protection  of  life  and 
property  against  crime,  and  to  manage  such  indis- 
pensable penal,  charitable,  and  educational  institu- 
tions as  are  not  provided  by  the  municipalities.  It 
is  still  necessary  for  the  States  of  our  Union  to  keep 
up  the  militia;  but  perhaps  the  best  thing  that 
could  be  done  for  the  public  safety  would  be  to  have 
tramps  kept  from  crime,  and  assisted  to  employ- 
ment by  a  State  police.  Ownership  of  real  estate 
would  be  more  secure,  and  sale  easier,  if  titles  were 
guaranteed  by  the  State ;  and  it  would  also  do  well, 
as  Spencer  suggests,  to  help  people  of  moderate 
means  resist  lawsuits  brought  to  extort  money.  It 
seems,  at  all  events,  well  that  our  States  keep  up 
their  boards  of  health,  and  their  supervision  of 
banks,  railroads,  steamboats,  and  factories.     There 


2IO     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

are  a  great  many  unnecessary  laws,  as,  for  instance, 
was  one  in  Massachusetts  for  selHng  coal  below 
market  price.  This  was  fortunately  decided  to  be 
unconstitutional;  but  whether  this  commonwealth 
ought  to  continue  to  supply  free  text-books,  espe- 
cially in  high  schools,  seems  to  me  questionable. 
Many  individualists  object  to  laws  against  gambling, 
selling  liquor,  and  other  conduct  which  does  no 
direct  injury  except  to  those  who  take  part  volun- 
tarily. There  are  vicious  tendencies  enough  in 
human  nature,  I  think,  to  justify  attempts  to  keep 
temptation  out  of  sight. 

No  advantage  of  this  kind  can  be  claimed  for  the 
Sunday  laws  in  our  Eastern  and  Southern  States.  , 
It  is  certainly  desirable  to  have  one  day  a  week  of 
rest  from  labour  and  business;  but  it  is  equally  true 
that  a  man's  ploughing  his  field  or  weeding  his 
garden  does  not  infringe  on  the  liberty  of  his  neigh- 
bours, diminish  their  security  of  person  and  pro- 
perty, or  encourage  their  vicious  propensities,  even 
on  Sunday.  It  is  setting  a  bad  example  to  break 
any  law;  but  I  do  not  think  that  any  citizen  of 
Massachusetts  was  seriously  corrupted  by  resisting 
the  Fugitive  Slave  Act ;  and  I  doubt  if  any  Vermon- 
ter  was  morally  the  worse  for  breaking  the  law  in 
that  State  against  Sunday  "  visits  from  house  to 
house,  except  from  motives  of  humanity  or  charity, 
or  for  moral  and  religious  edification."  It  is  better 
to  have  the  laws  obeyed  intelligently  than  blindly; 
and  those  really  worthy  of  respect  would  have  more 
authority  if  every  prohibition  which  is  never  en- 
forced, except  out  of  malice,  were  repealed.  Much 
aid  is  given  to  morality  by  such  religious  observances 


The  Evolutionists  211 

as  are  voluntary  and  conscientious;  but  compulsory 
observance  breeds  both  slaves  and  rebels. 

How  far  our  Sunday  laws  are  meant  to  encourage 
the  peculiar  usages  of  the  popular  sects  is  seen 
in  the  fact  that,  since  1877,  about  150  professed 
Christians,  who  had  kept  the  Sabbath  on  the  day 
set  apart  in  the  Bible,  were  arrested  on  the  charge 
of  having  profaned  Sunday  by  such  actions  as 
ploughing  a  retired  field,  weeding  a  garden,  cut- 
ting wood  needed  for  immediate  use,  or  making  a 
dress.  They  refused  to  pay  any  fine;  most  of  them 
were  imprisoned  accordingly;  in  one  case  the  con- 
finement lasted  129  days;  two  deaths  were  hastened 
by  incarceration  ;  and  in  the  summer  of  1 895  eight  of 
these  "  Saturdarians,"  as  they  were  nicknamed,  were 
working  in  a  chain-gang  on  the  roads  in  Tennessee. 
One  of  the  eight  was  a  clergyman.  Among  the 
commonwealths  which  prosecuted  observers  of  the 
original  Sabbath  as  Sabbath-breakers  were  Georgia, 
Maryland,  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania, 
Massachusetts,  and  seven  other  States.  Such  pro- 
secutions were  too  much  like  persecutions  ;  for  people 
who  kept  neither  Saturday  nor  Sunday  were  not  so 
much  molested.  If  the  Sunday  laws  were  really 
meant  for  the  public  welfare,  every  citizen  would 
be  allowed  to  choose  his  own  Sabbath,  and  no  one 
who  kept  Saturday  sacred  would  be  required  to  rest 
on  Sunday  also.  Such  liberal  legislation  has  actually 
been  passed  by  Rhode  Island  and  many  other  States. 

How  strict  the  law  is  against  doing  business  on 
Sunday  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  in  1896 
a  decrepit  old  woman  was  sent  to  jail  in  New  York 
City  for  selling  a  couple  of  bananas,  and  a  boy  of 


212  Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century- 
fifteen  was  arrested  for  selling  five  cents'  worth  of 
coal  in  January.  Three  men  were  fined  for  selling 
umbrellas  in  the  street  on  a  rainy  Sunday  in  1895, 
and  others  were  arrested  for  selling  five  cents'  worth 
of  ice.  People  who  have  no  refrigerators  suffer 
under  the  difficulty  of  buying  ice,  fruit,  and  meat 
on  a  hot  Sunday  in  our  Eastern  cities. 

Sunday  laws  and  customs  differ  so  widely  in  our 
various  States,  that  they  cannot  all  be  wise  and 
just.  Rest  from  labour  and  business  is  secured  in 
Southern  California,  without  State  legislation,  by 
the  action  of  public  opinion ;  and  were  this  to  be- 
come too  weak,  it  would  be  reinforced  by  the  trades- 
unions.  Personal  liberty  is  not  necessarily  violated 
by  laws  prohibiting  disturbance  of  public  worship ; 
but  it  would  be  if  anyone  were  compelled  to  testify 
in  court,  or  sit  on  the  jury,  or  do  any  other  business 
elsewhere,  on  any  day  set  apart  for  rest  by  his  con- 
science and  religion.  There  seems  to  be  little  neces- 
sity for  other  legislation,  except  under  peculiar 
local  circumstances  to  which  town  and  city  magis- 
trates are  better  able  than  members  of  State  and 
national  legislatures  to  do  justice.  The  question, 
what  places  of  business  that  have  no  vicious  tend- 
encies ought  to  be  allowed  to  open  on  Sunday, 
might  settle  itself,  as  does  the  question  how  early 
they  are  to  close  on  other  days  of  the  week.  There 
needs  no  law  to  prevent  business  being  done  at 
night.  Stores  which  could  offer  nothing  that  many 
people  need  to  buy  on  Sunday,  would  have  so  few 
customers  that  the  proprietors  could  ill  afford  to 
open  their  doors.  Where  the  demand  is  as  great 
and  innocent  as  it  is  for  fresh  meat  and  fruit  in  hot 


1 


The  Evolutionists  213 

weather,  the  interest  of  the  proprietor  is  no  more 
plain  than  is  the  duty  of  the  legislator  and  magis- 
trate. People  employed  in  hotels,  stables,  tele- 
graph offices,  libraries,  museums,  and  parks,  can,  of 
course,  protect  themselves  from  overwork,  as  domes- 
tic servants  do,  by  stipulating  for  holidays  and  half- 
holidays. 

Whatever  may  be  the  gain  to  public  health  from 
cessation  of  labour  and  business  on  Sunday,  there 
is  no  such  advantage,  but  rather  injury,  from  the 
prohibition  of  healthy  recreations  and  amusements, 
which  are  acknowledged  to  be  perfectly  innocent  on 
at  least  six  days  of  the  week.  Sunday  is  by  no 
means  so  strictly  observed,  especially  in  this  respect, 
on  the  continent  of  Europe  as  in  the  United  States. 
Sabbatarianism  is  peculiarly  an  American  and  British 
institution;  and  this  fact  justifies  the  position  that 
it  is  by  no  means  a  necessary  condition  of  the  secur- 
ity, or  even  the  welfare,  of  civilised  nations.  If  our 
Sunday  laws  cannot  be  proved  to  be  necessary,  they 
must  be  admitted  to  be  oppressive.  Over-taxation 
is  but  a  slight  grievance  compared  with  the  tyranny 
of  sending  men  and  women  to  jail  for  inability  or 
unwillingness  to  pay  the  fines  imposed  in  1895  by 
the  State  of  Tennessee  for  working  on  their  farms, 
or  in  Massachusetts  soon  after  for  playing  cards  in 
their  own  rooms.  Further  consideration  of  the 
question,  what  amusements  should  be  permitted  on 
Sunday,  will  be  found  in  an  appendix. 

Such  problems  are  peculiarly  unfit  for  treatment 
by  our  central  Government.  Its  chief  duty,  of 
course,  is  protection  of  our  people  against  invasion 
and  rebellion;    and  the  authority  of  the  President 


2  14     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

and  Congress  ought  not  to  be  weakened  by  vain  at- 
tempts to  settle  disputes  which  would  be  dealt  with 
much  more  satisfactorily  by  the  cities  and  towns. 
A  Sunday  law  too  lax  for  Pennsylvania  might  be  too 
strict  for  California.  The  system  of  post-ofifices  is 
too  well  adapted  for  the  general  welfare  to  be  given 
up  hastily;  but  the  Government  ought  to  surrender 
the  monopoly  which  now  makes  it  almost  impos- 
sible for  citizens  to  free  themselves  from  dependence 
on  disobliging  or  incompetent  postmasters.  I  have 
nothing  to  say  against  the  Census,  Education, 
Health,  and  Patent  Bureaus,  nor  against  the  Smith- 
sonian Museum,  except  that  our  citizens  have  a 
right  to  use  their  own  property  as  freely  on  Sunday 
as  on  any  other  day  of  the  week.  I  do  not  see  why 
our  Government  should  have  more  than  that  of 
other  nations  to  do  with  the  issue  of  paper  money; 
but  I  leave  the  bank  question  to  abler  pens. 

The  tariff  is  a  much  plainer  issue.  We  are  told 
in  Social  Statics  that  "  A  government  trenches  upon 
men's  liberties  of  action  "  in  obstructing  commer- 
cial intercourse;  "  and  by  so  doing  directly  reverses 
its  function.  To  secure  for  each  man  the  fullest 
freedom  to  exercise  his  faculties,  compatible  with 
the  like  freedom  of  all  others,  we  find  to  be  the 
state's  duty.  Now  trade-prohibitions  and  trade- 
restrictions  not  only  do  not  secure  this  freedom,  but 
they  take  it  away,  so  that  in  enforcing  them  the 
state  is  transformed  from  a  maintainer  of  rights 
into  a  violator  of  rights. ' '  The  obstacles  to  import- 
ation deliberately  set  up  by  American  tariffs,  in- 
directly check  exportation  ;  for  unwillingness  to  buy 
from  any  other  nation  diminishes  not  only  its  will- 


The  Evolutionists  215 

ingness  but  its  ability  to  buy  our  products  in  return. 
The  United  States  are  actually  exporting  large 
amounts  of  cattle,  wheat,  and  cotton,  as  well  as  of 
boots  and  shoes,  agricultural  implements,  steel  rails, 
hardware,  watches,  and  cotton  cloth-  These  com- 
modities are  produced  by  Americans  who  can  defy 
foreign  competition.  In  some  cases  the  tariff  en- 
ables them  to  raise  their  prices  at  home,  to  the  loss 
of  their  fellow-citizens.  Prices  abroad  cannot  be 
raised  by  our  Government.  What  it  can  and  does 
do  is  to  burden  both  farms  and  factories  by  duties 
on  lumber,  glass,  coal,  wool,  woollen  goods,  and 
many  other  imports.  The  rates  are  arranged  with 
a  view  to  increase,  not  individual  liberty  or  public 
security,  but  the  profits  of  managers  of  enterprises 
which  would  not  pay  without  such  help.  Men  who 
are  carrying  on  profitable  industries  have  to  make 
up  part  of  what  is  lost  in  unprofitable  ones.  In 
fact,  the  cost  of  living  is  increased  needlessly  for 
all  our  citizens,  except  the  privileged  few. 

There  would  be  less  injustice  in  aiding  new  enter- 
prises by  bounties;  but  the  proper  authorities  to 
decide  how  much  money  should  be  voted  for  such 
purposes  are  the  cities  and  towns.  Some  of  the 
makers  of  our  national  Constitution  wished  to  make 
tariff  legislation  in  Congress  impossible  except  by  a 
majority  of  two-thirds;  and  this  might  properly  be 
required  for  all  measures  not  planned  in  behalf  of 
individual  liberty  or  the  public  safety.  Much  of  the 
business  now  done  by  the  nation  ought  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  States,  They  took  the  lead  between 
1830  and  1870  in  improving  rivers  and  harbours, 
building  railroads,  and  digging  canals.     The  result 


2i6     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

of  transferring  such  work  to  Congress  was  that  in 
1890  it  voted  $25,000,000  to  carry  on  435  under- 
takings, more  than  one-fourth  of  which  had  been 
judged  unnecessary  by  engineers.  Two  years  later, 
four  times  as  many  new  jobs  were  voted  as  had  been 
recommended  by  the  House  committee.  Among 
these  plans  was  one,  in  regard  to  the  Hudson  River, 
which  was  the  proper  business  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  The  extravagance  of  our  pension  system  is 
notorious.  If  the  restriction  proposed  by  Spencer 
is  applicable  anywhere,  it  is  to  central  rather  than 
local  governments. 

Vni.  Great  as  are  the  evils  of  unnecessary  laws, 
Spencer's  remedy  is  too  sweeping  to  be  universally 
supported  by  evolutionists.  H  uxley  protests  against 
it  as  "  administrative  Nihilism,"  and  declares  that  if 
his  next-door  neighbour  is  allowed  to  bring  up  child- 
ren "  untaught  and  untrained  to  earn  their  living, 
he  is  doing  his  best  to  restrict  my  freedom,  by  in- 
creasing the  burden  of  taxation  for  the  support  of 
gaols  and  workhouses  which  I  have  to  pay."  His 
conclusion  is  that  "  No  limit  is  or  can  be  theoretic- 
ally set  to  state  interference."  The  impossibility 
of  drawing  "  a  hard  and  fast  line  "  is  admitted  even 
by  so  extreme  an  individualist  as  Wordsworth  Don- 
isthorpe,  who  complains  that ' '  Crimes  go  unpunished 
in  England,"  while  the  "  Great  National  Pickpocket " 
is  busy  "  reading  through  all  the  comedies  and 
burlesques  brought  out  in  the  theatres,"  "  running 
after  little  boys  who  dare  to  play  pitch-farthing," 
or  "  going  on  sledging  expeditions  to  the  North 
Pole." 


The  Evolutionists  217 

Lecky  agrees  so  far  with  Spencer  and  Mill  as  to 
say,  in  Democracy  and  Liberty,  that  punishment 
should  "  be  confined,  as  a  general  rule,  to  acts 
which  are  directly  injurious  to  others,"  and  accord- 
ingly that  "  With  Sunday  amusements  in  private 
life,  the  legislator  should  have  no  concern."  As  a 
check  to  over-legislation,  he  recommends  biennial 
sessions,  instead  of  annual;  and  he  protests  against 
the  despotism  of  trades-unions.  His  strongest 
point  against  Spencer  is  that  sanitary  legislation  has 
added  several  years  to  the  average  length  of  life  in 
England  and  Wales,  prevented  more  than  eighty 
thousand  deaths  there  in  a  single  year,  and  actually 
reduced  the  death-rate  of  the  army  in  India  by 
more  than  four-fifths. 

IX.  Spencer  has  succeeded  in  increasing  the  num- 
ber of  individualists  so  much,  that  Donisthorpe  says 
they  can  be  counted  by  the  thousand,  though  there 
were  scarcely  enough  in  1875  in  England  to  fill  an 
omnibus.  Transcendentalism  had  made  individual- 
ism comparatively  common  long  before  in  America. 
The  principle  of  not  interfering  with  other  people, 
except  to  prevent  their  wronging  us,  is  fully  applic- 
able, as  Spencer  says,  to  the  relation  of  husband 
with  wife,  and  also  to  that  of  parent  and  teacher 
with  child.  It  could  also  be  followed  with  great 
advantage  in  the  case  of  domestic  servants.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  of  the  correctness  of  the' position, 
taken  in  the  Principles  of  Sociology,  that  delight 
in  war  has  a  tendency  to  stifle  love  of  liberty. 
Sparta,  Russia,  and  the  new  German  Empire  show 
that  where  the  ideal  of  a  nation  is  military  glory. 


2i8      Liberty  In  the  Nineteenth  Century 

"  The  individual  is  owned  by  the  State."  The  citi- 
zens are  so  graded,  that  "  All  are  masters  of  those 
below  and  subjects  of  those  above."  The  workers 
must  live  for  the  benefit  of  the  fighters,  and  both 
be  controlled  closely  by  the  government.  Armies 
flourish  on  the  decay  of  individual  rights.  How 
difificult  it  was  to  avoid  this,  during  some  bloody 
years,  even  in  America,  has  been  shown  in  Chapter 
IV.  A  nation  of  shopkeepers  is  better  fitted  than 
a  nation  of  soldiers  to  develop  free  institutions. 

One  of  Spencer's  objections  to  Socialism  is  that  it 
would  "  end  in  military  despotism."  Nothing  else 
could  replace  competition  so  far  as  to  keep  a  nation 
industrious.  Spencer  is  right  in  saying,  "  Benefit 
and  worth  must  vary  together,"  which  means  that 
wages  and  salaries  should  correspond  to  value  of 
work.  Otherwise,  "  The  society  decays  from  in- 
crease of  its  least  worthy  members  and  decrease  of 
its  most  worthy  members." 

These  facts  are  so  generally  known  already,  that 
there  is  less  danger  than  is  thought  by  Spencer,  of 
either  the  national  establishment  of  Socialism  or  of 
a  ruinous  extension  of  governmental  interference. 
The  average  American  is  altogether  too  willing  to 
have  his  wealthy  neighbours  taxed  for  his  own  bene- 
fit ;  but  he  knows  that  he  can  make  himself  and 
his  family  more  comfortable  by  his  own  exertions 
than  his  poor  neighbours  are;  and  he  is  not  going 
to  let  any  government  forbid  his  doing  so.  He 
does  not  object  to  public  libraries,  and  perhaps  would 
not  to  free  theatres;  but  he  would  vote  down  any 
plan  which  would  prevent  his  using  his  money  and 
time  to  his  own  greatest  advantage.      He  is  some- 


The  Evolutionists  219 

times  misled  by  plausible  excuses  for  wasting  public 
money,  and  arresting  innocent  people;  but  he  in- 
sists on  at  least  some  better  pretext  than  was  made 
for  the  old-fashioned  meddling  with  food,  clothing, 
business,  and  religion.  He  may  not  call  himself  an 
individualist;  but  he  will  never  practise  Socialism. 

This  sort  of  man  is  already  predominant  in  Great 
Britain,  as  well  as  in  America;  and  multiplication 
of  the  type  elsewhere  is  fostered  by  mighty  tend- 
encies. The  duty  of  treating  every  form  of  religion 
according  to  ethical  and  not  theological  standards 
is  rapidly  becoming  the  practice  of  all  civilised  gov- 
ernments; and  persecution  is  peculiar  to  Turkey 
and  Russia.  These  two  despotisms  form,  with  Ger- 
many, the  principal  exceptions  to  the  rule  that 
political  liberty  is  on  the  increase  throughout 
Europe,  especially  in  the  form  of  local  self-govern- 
ment. The  nineteenth  century  has  made  even  the 
poorest  people  more  secure  than  ever  before  from 
oppression  and  lawless  violence,  as  well  as  from 
pestilence  and  famine.  Destitution  is  relieved  more 
amply  and  wisely,  while  industry  and  intelligence 
are  encouraged  by  opportunity  to  enjoy  comforts 
and  luxuries  once  almost  or  altogether  out  of  the 
reach  of  monarchs.  The  fetters  formerly  laid  on 
trade  of  cities  with  their  own  suburbs  have  been 
broken  ;  and  the  examples  of  Great  Britain  and  New 
South  Wales  are  proving  that  nations  profit  more 
by  helping  than  hindering  one  another  in  the  broad 
paths  of  commerce.  Industrial  efficiency  has  cer- 
tainly been  much  promoted  by  the  tendency,  not 
only  of  scientific  education  but  of  manual  training, 
to  substitute  knowledge  of  realities  for  quarrels  about 


220     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

abstractions.  All  these  changes  favour  the  exten- 
sion of  free  institutions  and  also  of  individual  lib- 
erty, wherever  peace  can  be  maintained.  Industrial 
nations  gain  more  than  warlike  ones  by  encouraging 
intellectual  independence;  but  the  general  advant- 
age is  great  enough  to  ensure  the  final  triumph  of 
liberty. 


APPENDIX 


SUNDAY   RECREATION 


THIS  is  much  more  common  in  New  England  and 
Great  Britain  than  it  was  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  dinner  has  become  the  best,  instead  of  the  worst  in 
the  week.  Scarcely  anyone  rises  early;  and  nobody  is 
shocked  at  reading  novels.  There  is  an  enormous  cir- 
culation in  both  English  and  American  cities  of  Sunday 
papers  whose  aim  is  simply  amusement.  There  is  plenty 
of  lively  music  in  the  parlours,  as  well  as  of  merry  talk  in 
which  clergymen  are  ready  to  lead.  People  who  have 
comfortable  homes  can  easily  make  Sunday  the  pleasant- 
est  day  of  the  week. 

For  people  who  cannot  get  much  recreation  at  home, 
there  are  increasing  opportunities  to  go  to  concerts,  pic- 
ture-galleries, and  museums.  Among  the  reading-rooms 
thrown  open  on  Sunday  in  America  about  1870  was  that 
of  the  Boston  Public  Library;  and  no  difference  is  now 
made  in  this  great  institution  among  the  seven  days, 
except  that  more  children's  books  and  magazines  are 
accessible  on  Sunday.  What  important  museums  are 
now  open  in  London,  Boston,  and  New  York  have  been 
already  mentioned  in  Chapter  VI.  These  opportunities 
are  still  limited;  but  there  is  no  obstacle,  except  that  of 
bad  weather,  to  excursions  on  foot  or  bicycle,  behind 
horse  or  locomotive,   in   electric  car  or  steamboat,   to 

221 


222  Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century- 
beaches,  ponds,  and  other  places  of  amusement.  The 
public  parks  are  crowded  all  day  long  in  summer;  and 
people  who  go  to  church  in  the  morning  have  no  scruple 
about  walking  or  riding  for  pleasure  in  the  afternoon. 
These  practices  were  expressly  sanctioned  by  Massa- 
chusetts in  1887,  and  by  New  Jersey  in  1893;  and  the 
old  law  against  Sunday  visiting  has  been  repealed  since 
1880  in  Vermont. 

The  newer  States  have  taken  care  not  to  pass  such 
absurd  statutes.  I  believe  that  the  majority  of  our 
people  were  willing,  as  for  instance  was  that  prominent 
Episcopalian,  Bishop  Potter,  to  have  the  Chicago  Ex- 
position open  on  Sundays.  Theatres  and  baseball 
grounds  attract  crowds  of  visitors  in  our  cities,  especially 
those  west  of  the  Alleghanies.  Whatever  changes  are 
made  in  the  East  will  probably  be  in  the  direction  of 
greater  liberty.  The  only  question  is  how  fast  the  pre- 
sent opportunities  of  recreation  ought  to  be  increased. 

No  one  would  now  agree  with  Dr.  Chalmers  in  calling 
the  Sabbath  "  an  expedient  for  pacifying  the  jealousies 
of  a  God  of  vengeance."  Good  people  have  ceased  to 
think,  as  the  Puritans  did,  that  "  Pleasures  are  most 
carefully  to  be  avoided  "  on  every  day  of  the  week,  or 
that  "Amity  to  ourselves  "is  enmity  against  God." 
Preachers  no  longer  recommend  "  abstaining  not  only 
from  unlawful  pleasures,  but  also  from  lawful  delights." 
Popular  clergymen  now  say  with  Dr.  Bellows:  "  Amuse- 
ment is  not  only  a  privilege  but  a  duty,  indispensable  to 
health  of  body  and  mind,  and  essential  even  to  the  best 
development  of  religion  itself."  "  I  put  amusement 
among  the  necessaries  and  not  the  luxuries  of  life." 
"  It  is  as  good  a  friend  to  the  church  as  to  the  theatre, 
to  sound  morals  and  unsuperstitious  piety  as  to  health 
and  happiness,  ...  an  interest  of  society  which 
the  religious  class  instead  of  regarding  with  hostility  and 


Appendix  223 

jealousy,  ought  to  encourage  and  direct."  "  There  is 
hardly  a  more  baleful  error  in  the  world  than  that  which 
has  produced  the  feud  between  morality  and  amusement, 
piety  and  pleasure." 

The  fact  is  that  pleasure  means  health.  As  I  have 
said  in  a  newspaper  entitled  The  Index  :  "  It  is  a  viola- 
tion of  the  laws  of  health  for  anyone,  not  absolutely 
bed-ridden  or  crushed  by  fatigue,  to  spend  thirty-six 
hours  without  some  active  exercise  in  the  open  air. 
Trying  to  take  enough  on  Saturday  to  last  until  Monday, 
is  dangerous,  and  most  people  have  little  chance  for 
healthy  exercise  except  on  Sunday.  The  poor,  ignor- 
ant girl  who  has  had  no  fresh  air  for  six  days  ought  to  be 
encouraged  to  take  it  freely  on  the  seventh.  And  we  all 
need  our  daily  exercise  just  as  much  as  our  regular  food 
and  sleep.  The  two  thousand  delegates  who  asked,  in 
behalf  of  ninety  thousand  working  men,  in  1S53,  to  have 
the  Crystal  Palace  open  on  Sundays,  were  right  in  declar- 
ing that  '  Physical  recreation  is  as  necessary  to  the  work- 
ing man  as  food  and  drink  on  the  Sabbath.'  The  fact  is 
that  pleasure  is  naturally  healthy  even  when  not  involving 
active  exercise.  Dark  thoughts  breed  disease  like  dark 
rooms.  The  man  who  never  laughs  has  something  wrong 
about  his  digestion  or  his  conscience.  Herbert  Spencer 
has  proved  that  our  pleasant  actions  are  beneficial,  while 
painful  ones  are  injurious  both  to  ourselves  and  to  our 
race  ^Principles  of  Psychology,  vol.  i.,  pp.  278-2S6; 
Am.  Ed.).  Thus  Smiday  amusements  are  needed  for 
the  general  health. 

"  They  are  also  necessary  for  the  preservation  of 
morality.  This  consists  in  performing  the  actions  which 
benefit  ourselves  and  our  neighbours,  in  other  words, 
pleasant  ones,  and  abstaining  from  whatever  is  painful 
and  injurious.  It  is  only  in  exceptional  cases  that  we 
can  make  others  happy  by  suffering  pain  ourselves.     Now 


224     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

and  then  the  paths  of  virtue  and  pleasure  diverge;  but 
they  always  come  together  again.  As  a  rule,  they  trav- 
erse precisely  the  same  ground  and  in  exactly  the  same 
direction.  This  is  very  fortunate;  for  if  pleasure  were 
always  vicious,  virtue  would  be  hateful  and  impossible. 
The  most  blessed  of  all  peacemakers  is  he  who  keeps 
virtue  and  pleasure  from  falling  out.  There  is  no  better 
text  than  that  which  the  little  girl  said  she  had  learned 
at  Sunday-school:  '  Chain  up  a  child  and  away  she  will 
go!  '  Even  so  strict  a  man  as  Dr.  Johnson  said:  '  I  am 
a  great  friend  to  public  amusements,  for  they  keep  people 
from  vice.'  Is  there  no  need  of  them  on  the  day  when 
there  is  more  drinking,  gambling,  and  other  gross  vice 
than  on  any  other  ?  Need  I  say  what  day  keeps  our 
policemen  and  criminal  courts  most  busy,  or  crowds  our 
hospitals  with  sufferers  from  riotous  brawls  ?  Has  not 
the  experience  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  justified 
those  English  statesmen  who  showed  themselves  much 
wiser  than  their  Puritan  contemporaries  in  recommend- 
ing archery,  dancing,  and  other  diversions  on  Sunday, 
because  forbidding  them  '  sets  up  filthy  tippling  and 
drunkenness  ?  '  To  keep  a  man  who  does  not  care  to 
go  to  church  from  getting  any  amusement,  is  to  push 
him  towards  the  saloon.  And  not  only  the  laws  against 
liquor  selling,  but  others  even  more  necessary  for  our 
safety,  would  be  much  better  enforced  if  we  did  not  en- 
courage lawlessness  by  keeping  up  statutes  which  our 
best  men  and  women  violate  without  scruple  and  with 
impunity,  or  which  actually  prevent  good  people  from 
taking  such  recreation  as  they  know  they  ought  to  have. 
Outgrown  ordinances  should  not  be  suffered  to  drag 
just  and  necessary  laws  down  into  contempt. 

"  Nobody  wants  to  revive  those  old  laws  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay  which  forbade  people  to  wear  lace,  or  buy 
foreign  fruit,  or  charge  more  than  a  fixed  price  for  a 


Appendix  225 

day's  work.  No  more  Quakers  will  ever  swing  from  a 
Boston  gallows  merely  for  preaching.  But  our  laws 
against  Sunday  amusements  are  in  the  same  spirit  as 
that  which  hung  Mary  Dyer.  In  old  times,  government 
kept  continually  telling  people  what  to  do,  and  took 
especial  pains  to  make  them  go  to  church  on  Sunday, 
If  they  stayed  away,  they  were  fined;  if  they  did  not 
become  members,  they  were  not  allowed  to  vote;  if  they 
got  up  rival  services,  they  were  hung;  if  they  took  any 
amusement  on  Sunday,  they  were  whipped.  All  four 
classes  of  laws  for  the  same  unjust  end  have  passed 
away,  except  that  against  Sunday  recreation.  This  still 
survives  in  a  modified  form.  But  even  in  this  shape  it 
is  utterly  irreconcilable  with  the  fundamental  principles 
of  our  government.  All  American  legislation,  from  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  rests  on  the  great  truth 
that  our  government  is  founded  in  order  to  secure  us  in 
our  unalienable  rights  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.  Our  State  is  a  limited  partnership  for  mutual 
protection.  We  carry  it  on  in  order  to  make  our  free- 
dom more  complete;  and  we  tolerate  no  restrictions  on 
ourselves  except  such  as  are  necessary  conditions  of  the 
greatest  possible  liberty.  These  principles  are  already 
fully  acknowledged  on  six  days  of  the  week,  but  only 
partly  on  the  seventh.  Still,  there  is  a  growing  recog- 
nition of  the  likeness  between  laws  against  Sunday 
amusements  and  such  prohibitions  of  eating  meat  in 
Lent  as  once  caused  people  to  be  burned  alive." 

A  weekly  day  of  rest  is  a  blessing;  but  David  Swing  is 
right  in  saying  that  "  Absolute  rest,  perfectly  satisfactory 
to  horse  and  dog,  is  not  adequate  to  the  high  nature  of 
man."  Complete  torpor  of  mind  and  body  is  more  char- 
acteristic of  a  Hindoo  fakir  than  of  a  Christian  saint. 
Should  those  who  wish  to  rest  as  much  as  possible  on 
Sunday  sleep  in  church  ?     There  is  nothing  irreligious 


226      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

in  fresh  air.  The  tendency  of  outdoor  exercise  to  purify 
and  elevate  our  thoughts  is  so  strong  that  Kingsley  ac- 
tually defended  playing  cricket  on  Sunday  as  "  a  carry- 
ing out  of  the  divineness  of  the  Sabbath. ' '  If  there  is  no 
hostility  between  religion  and  amusement  on  six  days 
of  the  week,  there  cannot  be  much  on  the  seventh. 

No  Protestants  are  more  religious  than  the  Swedes 
and  Norwegians.  Everybody  goes  to  church;  there  is 
theological  teaching  in  the  public-schools;  and  advocacy 
of  liberal  religious  views  was  punished  in  1888  with  im- 
prisonment. No  Scandinavian  objects,  so  far  as  I  know, 
to  indoor  games,  croquet,  dancing,  or  going  to  the 
theatre  on  Sunday;  and  these  amusements  are  acknow- 
ledged to  be  perfectly  proper  throughout  continental 
Europe.  No  one  who  allows  himself  any  exercise  or 
recreation  on  Sunday  has  a  right  to  say  that  his  neigh- 
bours do  not  need  more  than  he  does.  Lyman  Beecher 
could  not  preach  his  best  on  any  day  when  he  did  not 
work  hard  at  sawing  wood  or  shovelling  sand  in  his 
cellar.  There  would  be  less  dyspepsia  on  Monday  if 
there  were  more  exercise  on  Sunday.  Herbert  Spencer 
tells  us  that  "  Happiness  is  the  most  powerful  of  tonics. 
By  accelerating  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  it  facilitates 
the  performance  of  every  function;  and  so  tends  alike  to 
increase  health  where  it  exists,  and  to  restore  it  when  it 
has  been  lost.  Hence  the  essential  superiority  of  play 
to  gymnastics." 

A  Bible  Dancing  Class  is  said  to  have  been  organised, 
in  deference  to  such  facts,  in  New  Jersey  by  an  Epis- 
copalian pastor,  who  perhaps  wishes  to  accomplish  Jere- 
miah's prediction  of  the  Messianic  kingdom,  "  Then 
shall  the  virgin  rejoice  in  the  dance."  Among  other 
liberal  clergymen  is  Brooke  Herford,  who  says:  "  We 
want  Sunday  to  be  the  happiest  day  in  all  the  week. 
Keep  it  free  from  labour,  but  free  for  all  quiet,  inno- 


Appendix  227 

cent  recreations."  Rev.  Charles  Voysey  wrote  me  in 
1887,  lamenting  the  immorality  arising  "  from  the  curse 
of  having  nothing  to  do  or  nowhere  to  go  on  Sunday 
afternoons  and  evenings. "  "  Young  persons  especially, ' ' 
he  said,  "  would  be  better,  and  morally  more  safe,  for 
greater  opportunities  of  innocent  pleasure  and  games  at 
the  hours  of  enforced  idleness  on  the  Sunday." 

The  spirit  of  the  legislators  is  changing  like  that  of  the 
clergy.  The  first  laws  against  Sunday  amusement  were 
passed  by  men  who  thought  all  pleasure  vicious  on  every 
day  of  the  week.  Our  present  statutes  are  kept  in  force 
by  people  who  like  amusement,  and  get  all  they  want  of 
it;  but  who  make  it  almost  impossible  for  their  poor 
neighbours,  in  order  to  conciliate  ecclesiastical  prejudice. 
"  They  bind  heavy  burdens  and  grievous  to  be  borne  and 
lay  them  on  men's  shoulders  ";  but  they  themselves  do 
not  feel  the  weight. 

Whatever  may  be  the  advantage  of  keeping  Sunday,  it 
cannot  be  kept  religiously  when  it  is  kept  compulsorily. 
Rest  from  unnecessary  labour  and  business  on  one  day 
every  week  may  be  for  the  public  welfare;  but  this  rest 
is  not  made  more  secure  by  indiscriminate  prohibitions 
of  amusement.  The  idlest  man  is  the  most  easily 
tempted  to  disturb  his  neighbours.  No  man's  property 
is  more  safe  or  his  personal  liberty  more  secure  because 
his  neighbours  are  liable  to  be  fined  for  playing  golf. 
Laws  against  Sunday  recreation  do  not  protect  but  vio- 
late individual  liberty.  A  free  government  has  no  busi- 
ness to  interfere  with  the  right  of  the  citizens  to  take 
healthy  exercise  and  innocent  amusement  whenever  they 
choose. 

These  considerations  would  justify  a  protest,  not  only 
against  the  Sunday  laws  made  by  Congress  for  the  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  but  also  against  the  statutes  of  every 
State  in  the  Union,  except  Arizona,  California,  Idaho, 


2  28     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

Louisiana,  and  Wyoming.  "  Whoever  is  present  at  any 
sport,  game,  play,  or  public  diversion,  except  a  concert 
of  sacred  music,  or  an  entertainment  given  by  a  religious 
or  charitable  society,  the  proceeds  of  which,  if  any,  are 
to  be  devoted  exclusively  to  a  religious  or  charitable 
purpose,"  on  what  is  called  "  the  Lord's  day  "  in  Mass- 
achusetts is  liable  to  a  fine  of  five  dollars;  the  penalty 
for  taking  part  may  be  fifty  dollars;  and  the  proprietor 
or  manager  may  be  fined  as  much  as  five  hundred  dollars. 
New  Jersey  still  keeps  her  old  law  against  "  singing, 
fiddling,  or  other  music  for  the  sake  of  merriment"; 
and  express  prohibitions  of  "  any  sport  "  are  still  main- 
tained by  Connecticut,  Maine,  and  Rhode  Island. 
Prominent  among  other  States  which  forbid  amusements 
acknowledged  innocent  on  six  days  of  the  week,  are 
New  Hampshire,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Ver- 
mont. Many  of  our  States  show  particular  hostility  to 
card-playing,  dancing,  and  theatre-going.  The  fact 
that  fishing  was  practised  by  some  of  the  Apostles  on 
Sunday  has  not  saved  this  quiet  recreation  from  being 
prohibited  by  more  than  twenty  commonwealths. 

If  every  Sunday  law  were  a  dead  letter,  it  ought  to  be 
repealed,  because  it  tends  to  bring  needed  laws  into  con- 
tempt ;  but  among  recent  results  of  Sunday  legislation  are 
the  following.  In  1876  some  children  were  fined  for  play- 
ing ball  in  Rhode  Island;  so,  about  this  time,  in  Massa- 
chusetts, were  a  boy  for  skating,  a  young  man  for  playing 
lawn-tennis,  and  a  merchant  for  fishing  with  his  little  son. 
In  1894  two  men  were  fined  $10  each  for  playing  golf  on 
a  lonely  hill,  in  the  commonwealth  just  mentioned;  five 
boys  under  fifteen  arrested  for  playing  marbles  in  New 
York  City;  and  every  member  of  a  baseball  club  in 
Pennsylvania  fined.  In  1895  a  man  and  a  boy  of  fifteen 
were  fined  $20  each  for  fishing  in  New  York;  and  the 
attempt  of  some  clergymen,  aided  by  police,   to  break 


Appendix  229 

up  a  show  in  Missouri,  caused  a  tumult  in  which  men's 
heads  were  broken  by  clubs,  while  women  and  children 
were  trampled  underfoot.  On  the  first  Sunday  that 
the  London  galleries  and  museums  were  thrown  open  to 
their  owners,  May  24,  1896,  two  men  were  shot  dead 
in  Attleboro,  Mass.,  by  a  policeman  who  had  been 
ordered  to  break  up  a  clambake.  In  that  same  year 
and  State,  a  manager  was  fined  $70  for  allowing  Yankee 
Doodle  to  be  performed  in  the  Boston  Theatre;  three 
men  were  arrested  for  bowling;  half  a  dozen  Jews  who 
had  been  playing  cards  in  a  private  house  were  fined 
$10  or  $20  each,  and  those  who  could  not  pay  were  sent 
to  jail.  Among  the  Sabbath-breakers  arrested  in  1897 
were  a  number  of  newsboys  at  the  national  capital,  nine 
golfers  in  Massachusetts,  a  young  man  for  holding  one 
end  of  a  rope  over  which  some  little  girls  were  skipping 
in  New  York  City,  and  also  the  manager  of  a  show  in 
New  Jersey,  who  spent  ten  days  in  jail.  Fines  were 
levied  in  1898  for  playing  golf  in  Connecticut,  and  twenty- 
five  fishermen  were  arrested  on  one  Sunday  in  Buffalo, 
N.  Y.  Such  are  the  risks  which  still  accompany  inno- 
cent and  healthy  amusements  in  the  Eastern  States. 
Many  such  arrests  are  made  in  order  to  collect  fees,  or 
gratify  malice;  and  neither  motive  ought  to  be  encour- 
aged by  the  friends  of  religion. 

Some  magistrates  in  Long  Island,  N.  Y.,  are  believed, 
while  still  holding  that  baseball  breaks  the  Sabbath,  to 
have  discovered  that  golf  does  not.  It  is  further  said 
that  on  July  9,  1899,  some  baseball  men  who  had  been 
playing  a  Sunday  game  to  a  large  crowd  saved  themselves 
from  arrest  by  using  their  bats  and  balls  to  imitate  golf- 
ing as  soon  as  a  policeman  appeared  in  their  grounds. 

None  of  the  Sunday  laws  is  so  mischievous  as  the  de- 
cree of  Mrs.  Grundy  against  all  forms  of  recreation  not 
practised  by  the  wealthy  and  fashionable.     These  people 


230     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

have  so  much  time  on  six  days  of  the  week  for  active  out- 
door sport  and  indoor  public  entertainments,  that  they 
make  little  attempt  to  indulge  in  such  recreations  on  Sun- 
day. People  who  have  only  this  one  chance  of  play- 
ing ball,  or  dancing,  or  going  to  stereopticon  lectures, 
concerts,  and  operas,  suffer  in  health  by  having  these  re- 
creations made  unpopular  as  well  as  illegal.  The  climate 
of  New  England  and  New  York,  as  well  as  of  Great  Brit- 
ain and  Canada,  has  unfortunately  been  so  arranged  that 
there  are  a  great  many  cold  and  rainy  Sundays,  when 
much  time  cannot  be  spent  pleasantly  in  walking  or 
riding.  This  matters  little  to  people  who  get  all  the 
amusement  they  want  in  their  parlours.  But  what  be- 
comes of  people  who  have  no  parlours  ?  For  instance, 
of  servant-girls  who  have  no  place  where  they  can  sing 
or  even  laugh  ?  Shop-girls  and  factory-girls  find  their 
little  rooms,  Sunday  after  Sunday,  too  much  like  prisons. 
Young  men  are  perhaps  even  more  unfortunate;  for 
they  go  to  the  saloon,  though  this  is  often  closed  with- 
out any  better  place  of  amusement  being  opened.  Why 
should  every  week  in  a  democratic  country  begin  with  an 
aristocratic  Sunday,  a  day  whose  pleasures  are  mainly 
for  the  rich  ? 

Libraries  and  museums  are  blessed  places  of  refuge; 
but  "  What  are  they  among  so  many  ?  "  The  residents 
of  the  District  of  Columbia  are  particularly  unfortunate, 
as  the  Smithsonian  Museum,  National  Library,  and  other 
buildings,  which  are  open  during  six  days,  are  kept 
shut  on  Sunday.  Congress  seems  to  be  of  the  opinion 
that  working  people  need  no  knowledge  of  natural  his- 
tory, except  what  they  can  get  from  sermons  about 
Jonah's  whale  and  Noah's  ark.  Washington  is  not  the 
only  city  whose  rich  men  ought  to  remember  the  warn- 
ing of  Heber  Newton:  "  Everything  that  tends  to  foster 
among  our  working  people  the  notion  of  class  privilege 


Appendix  231 

is  making  against  the  truest  morality  in  our  midst.  As 
they  look  upon  the  case,  it  is  the  wealthy  people,  whose 
homes  are  private  libraries  and  galleries  of  art,  who  pro- 
test against  the  opening  of  our  libraries  and  museums  to 
those  who  can  afford  no  libraries  and  buy  no  pictures. 
Sabbatarianism  is  building  very  dangerous  fires  to-day." 

We  should  all  be  glad  to  have  more  intellectual  culture 
given  on  Sunday.  One  way  of  giving  it  would  be  for  the 
churches  to  open  public  reading-rooms  in  the  afternoon. 
This  would  be  decidedly  for  their  own  interest;  and  so 
would  be  delivery  of  evening  lectures  on  history,  bio- 
graphy, and  literature.  The  Sunday-schools  in  England 
found  it  necessary,  even  as  late  as  1850,  to  give  much 
time  to  teaching  reading  and  writing  as  well  as  the  higher 
branches.  Sunday-school  rooms  in  America,  which  now 
are  left  useless  after  Sunday  noon,  might  be  employed  in 
teaching  English  to  German,  Italian,  and  Scandinavian 
immigrants  during  the  afternoon  and  evening.  Classes 
might  also  be  formed  in  vocal  music,  light  gymnastics, 
American  and  English  history  and  literature,  physiology, 
sociology,  and  political  economy.  Such  changes  would 
make  our  churches  all  the  more  worthy  of  the  founder, 
who  "  went  about  doing  good." 

The  observance  of  Sunday  as  a  day  of  rest  from 
labour  and  business  will  be  all  the  more  popular  as  it 
is  made  precious  to  irreligious  people.  They  are  numer- 
ous enough  to  have  a  right  to  ask  that  the  public  school- 
houses  be  opened  for  free  classes  in  French,  German, 
drawing,  and  modelling;  botany,  chemistry,  and  bird- 
lore;  cooking,  sewing,  and  wood-work.  If  teachers  of 
these  branches  were  employed  on  Sunday  by  our  cities, 
less  money  would  be  needed  for  police.  Our  industrial 
interests  would  certainly  gain  by  having  this  system 
carried  out  as  far,  for  instance,  as  is  done  by  Lyons  and 
Milan,  which  have  special  Sunday-schools  for  teaching 


232      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

weaving.  Goldsmiths  are  instructed  by  similar  schools 
in  Austria,  and  blacksmiths  in  Saxony.  The  full  ad- 
vantage of  Sunday  classes  of  the  various  kinds  here  sug- 
gested might  not  perhaps  be  seen  until  a  taste  for  them 
could  be  made  general,  but  doing  this  would  go  far  to 
diminish  the  taste  for  saloons. 

The  first  step,  however,  which  ought  to  be  taken  by 
our  legislatures  is  the  repeal  of  all  laws  hindering  the 
sale  of  tickets  on  Sunday  to  exhibitions  of  pictures  or 
curiosities,  concerts,  stereopticon  lectures,  or  other  in- 
structive entertainments  which  are  acknowledged  inoffen- 
sive during  the  rest  of  the  week.  How  far  dramatic 
performances  and  other  very  attractive  forms  of  public 
amusement  should  be  permitted  to  take  place  on  Sunday 
is  a  question  which  ought  to  be  settled  by  municipal 
authorities,  with  due  reference  to  each  special  case.  The 
people  whose  feelings  ought  to  be  considered  are  not 
those  who  wish  to  stay  away  from  such  places.  They 
can  easily  do  that  without  help  from  the  police.  The 
people  who  ought  to  be  heard,  first  and  last,  are  those 
who  wish  to  get  innocent  amusement  on  their  one  day  of 
leisure;  and  the  only  thing  which  the  police  need  do 
is  to  see  that  they  do  get  it  without  being  defrauded  or 
tempted  into  vice.  Only  the  actual  existence  of  such 
temptation  can  justify  interference  with  dancing  or  card- 
playing  in  a  private  house.  The  Sunday  reforms  most 
needed,  however,  are  those  v/hich  will  promote  out-door 
exercise  and  mental  culture. 


LIST  OF  DATES 


1776. 
17S0. 

1783. 
1785. 
1787. 


1789. 
1791. 

1792. 
1793- 
1795. 

1796. 
1797- 

179S. 
1799. 
1800. 

1801. 
1S02. 

1803. 


1804. 


Declaration  of  American  independence,  July  4th. 
Emancipation  in  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania. 
Peace  between  U.  S.  A.  and  Great  Britain,  September  3d. 
Great  prosperity  of  British  factories  about  this  time. 
Slavery  prohibited  north  of  Ohio  River  ;  slave-trade  opposed 

in   England  ;   Bentham's  Fyinciples  of  Morals  and  Legis- 
lation published. 
Constitution  of  U.  S.  A.  ratified  by  a  sufficient  number  of 

States,  June  21st. 
Bastille  taken,  July  14th. 
Paine's  Rights  of  Man,   Part  I.,   published,    March    13th; 

Louis  XVI.  accepts  the  new  constitution,  September  14th. 
France  a  republic,  September  2ist. 
Slavery  abolished  in  French  colonies,  February  4th. 
Insurrection  in  Paris  crushed  by  Bonaparte,   October  5th  ; 

free  public  schools  founded  throughout  France. 
Bonaparte  commander  of  army  of  Italy,  March  4th. 
French    Directory   makes   itself   absolute,    September   4th ; 

Venice  ceded  by  France  to  Austria. 
Irish  rebellion,  May  23d. 
Usurpation  by  Bonaparte,  November  loth. 
Election  of  Jefferson ;  Schelling's    Transcendental  Idealism 

published. 
Inauguration  of  Jefferson,  March  4th. 
Birth  of  Victor  Hugo,  February  26th  ;  'Ls.ms.rcV.'s  Eecherches 

published. 
Hayti  declares  herself  independent,  January  2d  ;    death  of 

Toussaint  in  prison,  April  27th  ;  birth  of  Emerson,   May 

25th  ;   Emmet's  insurrection  in  Ireland,  July  23d. 
The    Code   N'apoleon   announced,   January ;    Napoleon  pro- 

233 


234     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 


claimed  Emperor,  May  iSth ;  crowned,  December  2d ; 
Schiller's  William  Tell  published. 

1805.  Battle  of  Austerlitz,  December  2d. 

1806.  Death  of  Schiller,  May  gth  ;  birth  of  J.  S.  Mill,  May  20th  ; 

battle  of  Jena,  October  14th  ;  Berlin  decree  of  Napoleon 
against  commerce  with  Great  Britain,  November  21st. 

1S07.  Slave-trade  prohibited  by  Great  Britain,  March  25th  ;  Peace 
of  Tilsit,  July  7th,  raises  Napoleon  to  height  of  power  ; 
embargo  laid  by  U.  S.  A.,  December  22d  ;  Oken  announces 
the  vertebral  analogy  of  the  skull ;  Hegel's  Phaetwtneno logic 
des  Geistes  published. 

1808.  Rebellion  of  Spaniards  against  French  rule  ;  witchcraft  mob 
in  England  ;  Goethe's  Faust,  Part  I.,  published. 

1S09,  Birth  of  Darwin,  February  12th  ;  revolt  of  Tyrolese  under 
Hofer,  April  8th  ;  states  of  the  Church  annexed  to  France, 
May  17th  ;  death  of  Paine,  June  8th  ;  Pope  imprisoned, 
July  6th  ;  divorce  of  Josephine,  December  15th  ;  Lamarck's 
Philosophie  Zoologiqtte  published. 

1810.  Hofer   shot,    February    20th  ;   marriage   of   Napoleon   with 

Austrian  Archduchess,  April  ist  ;  post-offices  required  to 
open  every  Sunday  in  U.  S.  A.,  April  30th  ;  revolt  against 
Spanish  rule  of  Buenos  Ayres,  May  25th,  and  of  Chili, 
September  18th. 

181 1.  Nottingham  riots  against  machinery,  November. 

1812.  Birth  of  Dickens,  February  7th  ;  war  against  Great  Britain 

declared  by  U.  S.  A.,  June  i8th  ;  Wellington  enters  Mad- 
rid, August  I2th  ;  Moscow  burned,  September  14th  ;  By- 
ron's Childe  Harold,  Coleridge's  Friend,  and  Hegel's  Logik 
published. 

1813.  Wellington  invades  France,  October  7th  ;  battle  of  Leipsic, 

October  i6th,  18th,  and  igth  ;  Francia  ruler  of  Paraguay  ; 
Unitarian  disabilities  removed  in  England  ;  Shelley's  Qzieen 
Mab  and  Owen's  N'e7v  View  of  Society  published. 

1814.  Napoleon  is  deposed  by  Senate,  April    ist,  and  abdicates, 

April  nth  ;  liberal  constitution  introduced  by  Louis 
XVIH.,  May  ;  Washington  taken  and  burned  by  British, 
August  24th  ;  Peace  of  Ghent  between  U.  S.  A.  and  Great 
Britain,  December  24th  ;  Congress  of  Vienna  opens  No- 
vember 3d  ;  graves  of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau  violated. 

1815.  Battle  of  New  Orleans,  January  8th;  Waterloo,  June  i8th  ; 

controversy  of  Unitarians  and  Trinitarians  in   U.   S.   A.  ; 


Appendix  235 

last  heretic  burned  in  Mexico ;  Lamarck  publishes  the 
first  vohime  of  his  Histoire  A^aturellt. 

1817.  Shelley's  children  taken  from  him  on  account  of  his  opin- 

ions, March  26th  ;  demonstration  at  the  Wartburg,  Octo- 
ber i8th  ;  unusual  poverty  in  England  ;  her  authors  and 
orators  made  liable  to  imprisonment  without  a  trial  ;  Ben- 
tham  demands  suffrage  for  men  and  women  not  illiterate  ; 
Shelley's  Revolt  of  Islam  published. 

1818.  Chili    liberated   by  battle  of  Maipu,   won  by  San   Martin, 

April  5th  ;  religious  tests  abolished  in  Connecticut ;  Han- 
nah M.  Crocker's  Rights  of  Women  published. 

1819.  Assassination  of  Kotzebue,  March  23d  ;  Carlsbad  Conference, 

August  1st;  "  Peterloo "  massacre  at  Manchester,  August 
l6th  ;  Shelley's  Prometheus  Unbound  published. 

1820.  Revolution  in  Spain,  January  ist ;  and  at  Naples,  July  2d  ; 

assassination  of  French  princes,  February  13th,  causes  re- 
action against  liberalism  ;  birth  of  Herbert  Spencer,  April 
27th  ;  Owen's  plan  of  Socialism  proposed.  May  ist ;  con- 
ference of  Troppau,  December  8th  ;  Missouri  Compromise  ; 
Sydney  Smith  asks,  "Who  reads  an  American  book?"; 
Irving's  Rip  Van  Winkle  and  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow 
published. 

1821.  Brazil  begins  a  revolt,  January  ist,  as  do  Greece  and  Sar- 

dinia in  April,  and  Peru  in  July ;  death  of  Napoleon, 
May  5th  ;  Venezuela  and  Colombia  made  free  by  battle  of 
Carabolo,  won  June  24th,  by  Bolivar ;  Austria  supreme  in 
Italy  ;  Lundy  begins  his  Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation. 

1822.  Death  of  Shelley,  July  8th  ;    independence  of   Brazil    pro- 

claimed,   September   8th  ;    massacre   at    Scio ;    Fourrier's 
book  on  Association  published. 
1S23.     Spanish  patriots  crushed  by  French  army,  April  ;   Monroe 
Doctrine  announced,  December  ist  ;    British  Anti-Slavery 
Society  formed  ;  Victor  Hugo's  Odes  and  Ballads  published. 

1824.  Mexico  a  republic,  January  31st  :  Bolivar,  dictator  of  Peru, 

February  loth,  defeats  Spaniards  at  Ayachuco,  December 
9th  ;  death  of  Byron,  April  19th  ;  accession  of  Charles  X., 
September  i6th ;  repeal  of  statutes  forbidding  English 
labourers  to  combine  or  emigrate  :  Westminster  Review 
founded. 

1825.  Much   opposition   to   slavery   in    Kentucky,    Maryland,    and 

North  Carolina  ;    many  socialist   communities  founded  in 


236     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

U.  S.  A.;  elective  courses  of  study  at  Harvard  College, 
and  also  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  where  attendance  at 
religious  exercises  is  made  voluntary  ;  Coleridge's  Aids  to 
Reflection  published. 

1826.  Citizens  of  New  York  petition  for  repeal  of  Fugitive  Slave 

Law,  and  for  emancipation  in  the  District  of  Columbia. 

1827.  Battle  of  Navarino,  October  20th  ;  Taylor  sent  to  prison  for 

blasphemy,  October  24th. 

1828.  Test  Act  repealed  ;   Frances  Wright  lectures  against  clergy. 

1829.  Jackson    inaugurated    March   4th ;    Catholic    Emancipation 

Act  signed,  April  13th  ;  Miss  Wright  opens  a  Hall  of 
Science  in  New  York  City  on  Sunday,  April  25th  ;  James 
Mill's  Analysis  and  Fourrier's  Industrial  New  World 
published. 

1830.  Independence  of    Greece  acknowledged  by  Turkey,   April 

25th  ;  accession  of  William  IV.,  July  26th  ;  revolution  at 
Paris  begins  July  27th  ;  King's  troops  driven  out,  July 
29th  ;  he  is  succeeded  by  Louis  Philippe,  August  9th ; 
revolts  in  Brussels,  Warsaw,  and  Dresden ;  independ- 
ence of  Belgium  acknowledged,  December  26th  ;  Hether- 
ington  sent  to  prison  for  six  months  for  publishing  The  Poor 
Man's  Guardian  ;  Victor  Hugo's  Hernatii  acted  ;  Tenny- 
son's Poems  and  Lyell's  Prijiciples  of  Geology  published. 

1831.  First  number  of  The  Liberator,  January  1st,  and  of  The  In- 

vestigator, April  2d  ;  Carlile  sent  to  prison  for  his  writings, 
January  loth  ;  Cobbett  tried  and  acquitted,  July  31st ; 
massacre  of  fifty-five  white  men,  women,  and  children  by 
slaves  in  Virginia,  Sunday,  August  21st  ;  Warsaw  surrend- 
ers to  Russians,  September  7th  ;  Reform  Bill  defeated  by 
bishops,  October  7th ;  Jamaica  insurrection,  December 
•22d  ;  free  trade  convention  in  Philadelphia  ;  Victor  Hugo's 
Notre  Dame  de  Paris  published. 

1832.  New   England    Anti-Slavery    Society    founded    in    Boston, 

January  ist  (becomes  Mass.  A.  S.  in  1836) ;  death  of 
Goethe,  March  22d  ;  the  insurrection  at  Paris  described  in 
Les  Miserables,  June  5th  and  6th  ;  Reform  Bill  passed  and 
signed,  June  7th  ;  Jackson  re-elected,  November  6th  ; 
woman  suffrage  lecture  in  London,  December  2d  ;  Jack- 
son's proclamation  against  attempt  of  South  Carolina  to 
secede,  December  nth;  bloody  resistance  to  tithes  in 
Ireland  ;   Elliott's  Corn  Law  Rhy7nes  published. 


Appendix  237 

1833.  Gradual  reduction  of  tariff  voted  by  Congress,  March  ist ; 

death  of  Bentham,  June  6th  ;  Act  of  Parliament  for  eman- 
cipation in  West  Indies  passed  August  2Sth;  American 
Anti-Slavery  Society  founded  at  Philadelphia,  December  ; 
pro-slavery  mobs  there  and  in  New  York  City  ;  municipal 
suffrage  extended  in  Scotland  ;  unsectarian  public  schools 
in  Ireland  ;  first  free  town  library  in  U.  S.  A.  founded  at 
Peterboro,  N.  H.,  and  opened  Sundays  thenceforth;  Em- 
erson's first  lecture  ;  Carlyle's  Sartor  Resartus  published. 

1834.  Emancipation  in  West  Indies  takes  place,  August  ist ;  new 

poor  law  in  England,  August  14th  ;  insurrection  headed 
by  Mazzini  in  Italy. 

1835.  Death  of  Cobbett,  June  i6th  ;  anti-slavery  periodicals  taken 

from  post-office  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  and  burned  by  mob, 
July  ;  convent  at  Charlestown,  Mass.,  burned  by  a  mob, 
August ;  Garrison  mobbed  in  Boston,  and  other  abolition- 
ists in  New  York  and  Vermont,  October  21st ;  extension 
of  municipal  suffrage  in  England  ;  Tocqueville's  Deviocracy 
in  America,  and  Strauss's  Life  of  yesus  published. 

1836.  Transcendental  Club  founded  in  Boston,  September  ;   Parker 

begins  to  preach  ;  tithes  commuted  in  England  ;  taxes  on 
newspapers  reduced  ;  dissenters  permitted  to  marry  without 
disobedience  to  conscience  ;  Emerson's  Nature  and  Dick- 
ens' Pickwick  Papers  published. 

1837.  Discussion  of  slavery  in  House  of  Representatives  suppressed, 

January  ;  Miss  Grimke's  anti-slavery  lectures,  June  ;  Emer- 
son's address  on  The  American  Scholar,  August  31st ;  Anti- 
Slavery  Convention  of  N.  E.  Methodists,  October  25th  ; 
Carlyle's  French  Revolution  published. 

1838.  Emerson's  Divinity  School  Address,  July  15th  ;  Kneeland 

imprisoned  sixty  days,  that  same  summer,  for  blasphemy  ; 
Pennsylvania  Hall  burned  by  a  pro-slavery  mob  ;  Irish 
tithe  system  reformed  ;  daguerreotypes  invented  ;  Atlantic 
crossed  by  steam  ;  railroad  from  London  to  Birmingham  ; 
Channing's  Self-Culture  published. 

1839.  Anti-Corn-Law  League  organised,  March  20th  ;  unsectarian 

common  schools  in  England  ;  great  Chartist  petition  ;  Pope 
forbids  attendance  at  the  scientific  congress  at  Pisa. 

1840.  Penny  postage,  January  loth ;  nomination  of  candidate  for 

President,  April  ist,  by  Liberty  party  :  quarrels  in  May 
among  abolitionists  ;  World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention  at 


238     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

London,  in  June,  refuses  seats  to  female  delegates  ;  local 
self-government  in  Irish  cities  ;  protest  of  American  Catho- 
lics against  sectarianism  of  public  schools  ;  The  Dial  be- 
gins ;  Carlyle's  Heroes  and  Hero  Worship  published. 

1841.  Hetherington  imprisoned  in  England  for  publishing  Letters 

to  the  Clergy,  and  the  editor  of  the  Oracle  of  Reason  for 
attacking  the  Bible  ;  Emerson's  first  volume  of  Essays 
published. 

1842.  Garrison  calls  on  free  States  to  secede,  May  ;  death  of  Chan- 

ning,  October  2d  ;  Brook  Farm  started,  as  are  many  com- 
munties  about  this  time  ;  Spencer's  theory  of  the  limits  of 
government  published. 

1844.  Morse  proves  value  of  telegraph  by  announcing  nomination 

of  Frelinghuysen  for  Vice-President  by  Whigs,  May  ist  ; 
disunion  banner  publicly  accepted  by  Garrison,  June  ist  ; 
annexation  of  Texas  and  reduction  of  tariff  decided  by 
election  on  November  5th  ;  rule  against  discussing  slavery 
repealed  by  House  of  Representatives ;  Lowell's  Poe77is 
published. 

1845.  Parker  begins  to  preach  regularly  in  Boston,  February  i6th ;  po- 

tato rot  in  Ireland,  August ;   Vestiges  of  Creation  published. 

1846.  Mexico  invaded  by  U.  S.  troops,  March ;  free  trade  estab- 

lished in  England,  June  25th,  and  bill  to  reduce  American 
tariff  signed,  June  26th  ;  first  volume  of  Grote's  Greece  and 
first  number  of  Lowell's  Biglow  Papers  published. 

1847.  Mexicans  defeated  at  Buena  Vista  by  General  Taylor,  Feb- 

ruary 22d  and  23d  ;  death  of  O'Connell,  May  15th. 

1848.  Revolution  in   Paris,  February  22d  ;   King  abdicates,  Febru- 

ary 24th  ;  insurrections  in  Munich,  Vienna,  Berlin,  Venice, 
and  Milan  in  March,  afterwards  in  other  cities;  "spirit 
rappings  "  at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  begin  March  31st ;  Chartist 
demonstration  at  London,  April  loth  ;  Emancipation  de- 
creed by  French  Republic,  April  27th  ;  socialist  insurrec- 
tion at  Paris,  June  23d,  24th,  25th,  and  26th  ;  "  Woman's 
Rights"  Convention  at  Seneca  Falls,  N.  Y.,  July  19th; 
revolt  in  Ireland,  July  29th  ;  Buffalo  Convention  of  Free 
Soilers,  August  9th  ;  Kossuth  dictator  of  Hungary,  Sep- 
tember 25th  ;  State  constitution  and  town  ordinances  made 
in  October  by  citizens  of  California  without  Federal  sanc- 
tion ;  pro-slavery  defeat  at  election  of  Taylor,  November 
7th  ;  flight  of    Pope  from   Rome,   November  24th  ;  Louis 


Appendix  239 

Napoleon  president  of  F"rance,  December  lOth  ;  Lowell's 
Vision  of  Sir  Laiinfal,  Fable  for  Critics,  and  Biglo-v 
Papers  published. 

1849.  Defeat  of  King  of  Sardinia  by  Austrians  at  Novara,  March 

23d,  prevents  liberation  of  Italy ;  Rome  captured  by 
French,  July  3d  ;  Hungarian  army  surrendered  to  Russians 
by  Gorgei,  August  13th ;  Venice  taken  by  Austrians, 
August  28th  ;  Emancipation  Convention  in  Kentucky. 

1850.  Death  of  Wordsworth,  April  24th,  and  of  President  Taylor, 

July  9th ;  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  signed,  September  i?th  ; 
first  national  "Woman's  Rights"  Convention  at  Worces- 
ter, Mass.,  October  23d  and  24th  ;  Bradlaugh's  first  lecture  ; 
Hawthorne's  Scarlet  Letter,  Spencer's  Social  Statics,  and 
Tennyson's  In  Alemoriatii  published. 

1851.  London  Great  Exhibition  opens  May   ist  ;  a  fugitive  slave 

rescued  at  Boston,  Sunday,  February  i6th,  another  at 
Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  October  ist ;  usurpation  of  Louis  Napo- 
leon, December  2d,  1851. 

1852.  Uiicle   Toms  Cabin  published,  March  20th  ;  death  of  Fran- 

ces Wright,  and  accession  of  Napoleon  IIL,  December  2d  ; 
Herbert  Spencer  announces  the  principle  of  Differentiation. 

1854.  Repeal  of  Missouri  Compromise  proposed  by  Douglas,  Jan- 

uary 23d  ;  return  of  Burns,  a  fugitive  slave,  from  Boston, 
June  2d  ;  U.  S.  Constitution  publicly  burned  by  Garrison, 
July  4th  ;  Kansas  election  carried  by  border  ruffians,  No- 
vember 29th  ;  Thoreau's  IValden  published. 

1855.  Spencer's  Pyschology  and  Walt  Whitman's  Leaves  of  Grass 

published. 

1856.  Sumner  assaulted,  May  22d. 

1857.  Disunion    Convention,    Worcester,     Mass.,    January    15th; 

death  of  Beranger,  July  i6th,  and  of  Comte,  September 
5th  ;  tariff  reduced  twenty  per  cent,  in  U.  S.  A.  ;  Buckle's 
History  of  Civilisation,  vol.  i.,  published. 

1858.  Essays  by   Darwin  and  Wallace  read  in  public,  July   ist  ; 

Jews  admitted  to  Parliament  by  act  passed  July  23d  ; 
death  of  Robert  Owen,  November  17th  ;  Lincoln  and 
Douglas  campaign  in  Illinois. 

1859.  Austrians  defeated   at   Magenta,  June  4th,   and  Solferino, 

June  24th  ;  Lombardy  annexed  to  Sardinia  by  treaty  of 
Villafranca,  July  nth  ;  John  Brown  takes  possession  of 
Harper's  Ferry,  Sunday,  October  i6th,  and  is  tried  No- 


240     Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

vember  2d  ;  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species  published,  Novem- 
ber 24th  ;  John  Brown  hung,  December  2d. 
i860.  Split  of  Democratic  party,  April  30th ;  death  of  Theodore 
Parker,  May  loth  ;  Garibaldi  enters  Naples,  September 
7th ;  election  of  Lincoln,  November  6th ;  secession  of 
South  Carolina,  December  20th  ;  annexation  of  two  Sic- 
ilies to  Sardinia,  December  26th  ;  Mill  on  Liberty  pub- 
lished. 

1861.  Confederate  States  of   America   organised,    February    8th ; 

protective  tariff  passed,  March  2d  ;  Russian  serfs  emanci- 
pated, March  3d  ;  Lincoln  inaugurated,  March  4th  ;  Victor 
Emmanuel  King  of  Italy,  March  17th ;  Fort  Sumter  bom- 
barded, April  I2th,  surrendered,  April  13th  ;  Lincoln's 
proclamation,  Monday,  April  15th,  calls  all  the  North  to 
arms  ;  death  of  Cavour,  June  6th  ;  Union  defeat  at  Bull 
Run,  Sunday,  July  2ist. 

1862.  Paper  money  made  legal  tender  in  U.  S.  A.,  February  25th  ; 

return  of  fugitives  from  slavery  by  army  or  navy  forbidden, 
March  13th  ;  negro  soldiers,  April  ;  death  of  Thoreau, 
May  6th,  and  of  Buckle,  May  29th  ;  disastrous  campaign 
of  McClellan  in  Virginia  ends  by  his  retreat,  July  8th  ; 
Union  victory  at  Antietam,  September  igth  ;  emancipa- 
tion announced  as  a  possible  war  measure  by  Lincoln, 
September  22d  ;  Union  defeat  at  Fredericksburg,  Decem- 
ber 13th  ;  Victor  Hugo's  Les  Miserables  published,  also 
Spencer's  First  Pri}tciples,  containing  his  full  theory  of 
Integration  and  Differentiation. 

1863.  Lincoln  proclaims  emancipation,   January   1st ;     sign.?    bills 

suspending  Habeas  Corpus  Act  and  establishing  conscrip- 
tion, March  3d  ;  Union  defeat  at  Chancellorsville,  May  3d  ; 
Vallandigham  sentenced.  May  7th  ;  battle  of  Gettysburg, 
July  1st,  2d,  and  3d,  ending  in  a  Union  victory  ;  Vicks- 
burg  surrendered  to  General  Grant,  July  4th  ;  Mississippi 
opened  by  surrender  of  Port  Hudson,  July  9th  ;  Union 
victories  at  Lookout  Mountain,  November  24th,  and 
Chattanooga,  November  25th ;  Fenian  Convention  at 
Chicago,  November  25th  ;  Darwinism  much  opposed  by 
European  clergy  about  this  time. 

1864.  General    Grant    takes   command   of   all   the  Union  armies, 

March  12th  ;  undecisive  battles  in  the  Wilderness  and  at 
Spottsylvania,    May     5th-ioth ;    Fugitive     Slave    Act   re- 


Appendix  241 

pealed,  June  23d  ;  Nevada  admitted,  October  31st  ;  Lin- 
coln re-elected,  November  8th  ;  Sherman  marches  from 
Atlanta,  November  i6th,  and  enters  Savannah,  Decem- 
ber 22d. 

1865.  Death  of  Cobden,  April  2d  ;  Richmond  entered  by  coloured 

cavalry,  April  3d ;  Lee  surrenders,  April  9th ;  Lincoln 
shot.  Good  Friday,  April  14th,  dies  April  15th  ;  slavery 
abolished  by  Thirteenth  Amendment,  December  iSth ; 
Lecky's  Rationalism  published. 

1866.  Prussian  victory  over  Austria  at  Koniggratz,  July  3d  ;  Venice 

part  of  Kingdom  of  Italy,  November  4th. 

1867.  First  convention   of   the  Free    Religious  Association,    May 

30th;  suffrage  extended  in  England,  August  15th;  Home 
Rule  in  Hungary. 

1868.  Fourteenth  Amendment  in  force,  July  28th  ;  Cuban  declara- 

tion of  independence,  October  loth. 

1869.  Irish  Church  disestablished,  July  26th  ;  witnesses  allowed  to 

affirm  in  Great  Britain. 

1870.  Death  of   Dickens,  June  gth ;    Napoleon   III.    defeated  at 

Sedan,  September  ist  ;  France  a  republic,  September  4th  ; 
Rome  part  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  October  gth  ;  Inger- 
soll  begins  to  lecture  ;   Home  Rule  agitation  in  Ireland. 

1871.  Paris  surrendered  to  Prussians,  January  28th  ;  Communists 

supreme  there,  March  i8th,  suppressed,  May  28th  ;  eman- 
cipation in  Brazil ;  Darwin's  Descent  of  Man  published. 

1872.  Death  of  Mazzini,  March  loth  ;  secret  ballot  in  England  ; 

Abbot's  "  Demands  of  Liberalism  "  published  in  The  Index 
(which  began  January  i,  1870). 

1873.  Spain  a  republic,  February  nth  ;    death  of  J.  S.  Mill,  May 

8th  ;  American  Liberal  League,  September  ist. 

1874.  Military  usurpation  at  Madrid,  January  3d  ;  death  of  Sum- 

ner, March  nth;  citizens  of  District  of  Columbia  dis- 
franchised, June  17th ;  Alphonso  XII.  king  of  Spain, 
December  30th  ;  Mrs.  Besant  begins  to  lecture  ;  Victor 
Hugo's  AHnety-  Three  published. 

1875.  Sunday  Society  organised  at  London. 

1876.  Centennial  Exhibition  at  Philadelphia  opens.  May  loth,  and 

convention  of  Liberal  League,  July  ist  ;  disputed  election 
for  President,  November  7th  ;  Sunday  convention  in  Bos- 
ton, November  15th;  vivisection  restricted  in  England; 
Cuban  rebellion  suppressed. 


242      Liberty  in  the  Nineteenth  Century 

1877.  Museum  of  Fine  Arts  in  Boston  open  in  and  after  March  on 

Sundays. 

1878.  Anti-clerical  resolution  passed  by  Woman  Suffrage  Conven- 

tion, Rochester,  N.  Y.,  July  ;  split  of  Liberal  League  at 
Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  Sunday,  October  27th  ;  Professor  Win- 
chell  obliged  to  leave  Nashville,  Tenn.,  for  evolutionism. 

1879.  Specie  payment  resumed  in  U.  S.  A.,  January  ist  ;  death  of 

Garrison,  May  24th  ;  Henry  George's  Progress  and  Poverty 
published. 

1880.  Bradlaugh  refused  his  seat  in  Parliament,  May  21st  ;  many 

patriots  banished  to  Siberia. 
i88i.     Czar  Alexander  IL    assassinated,    March   13th,   anti-Jewish 
mobs  on  and  after  April    27th  ;    Bradlaugh   excluded   by 
force,  August  ist. 

1882.  Death  of  Longfellow,  March  24th,  of  Darwin,  April  iSth,  of 

Emerson,  April  27th,  and  of  Garibaldi,  June  2d. 

1883.  Foote  and  Ramsay,   English  journalists,  sentenced  respect- 

ively to  twelve  and  nine  months  in  prison  for  blasphemy, 
March. 

1884.  Death  of  Wendell  Phillips  ;  February  2d  ;  Cleveland  elected 

President,  November  4th  ;  Professor  Woodrow  dismissed 
from  Presbyterian  Theological  Seminary  at  Columbia,  S. 
C,  for  teaching  evolution,  December  12th. 

1885.  Death  of  Victor  Hugo,   May  20th,  and  of  General  Grant, 

July  23d. 

1886.  Bradlaugh  takes  his  seat,  January  13th  ;  railroad  strike  in 

Missouri  suppressed  by  Federal  troops,  March ;  bloody 
conflict  of  Chicago  anarchists  with  police.  May  4th  ; 
statue  of  Liberty  unveiled  in  New  York  Harbour,  October 
28th. 

1887.  Chicago  anarchists  hung,  November  nth. 

1888.  U.  S.  tariff  reduced  by  Mills  Bill,  July  21st  ;  Cleveland  de- 

feated, November  6th  ;  imprisonment  in  Sweden  for  blas- 
phemy ;  Bellamy's  Looking  Backward  published. 

1889.  Brazil   a   republic,    November    15th ;     death   of   Browning, 

December  12th. 

1890.  Australian  ballot  tried  in  Rhode   Island,  April   2d  ;  U.  S. 

tariff  raised  by  McKinley  Bill,  passed  by  the  "  Billion  Dol- 
lar "  Congress,  and  signed  October  ist. 

1891.  Death  of  Bradlaugh,  January  30th,  and  of  Lowell,  August 

I2th  ;  Jews  expelled  from  Moscow  in  April,  and  much  per- 


Appendix  243 

seculed  this  year  and  in  1892  ;  New  York  Museum  of  Art 
opened  on  Sunday,  May  31st,  to  10,000  visitors. 

1892.  Death  of  Walt  Whitman,  March  26th,  of  Whittier,  Septem- 

ber 7th,  and  of  Tennyson,  October  6th ;  bill  excluding 
Chinese  from  U.  S.  A.  signed,  May  5th  ;  Congress  votes 
for  closing  Chicago  Exposition  on  Sundays,  July  19th  ; 
Cleveland  re-elected,  November  8th  ;  New  York  Museum 
of  Natural  History  open  Sundays ;  revised  edition  of 
Spencer's    Social  Statics   published. 

1893.  Chicago   Exposition   formally   opened    May    ist,  first   open 

Sunday,  May  28th  ;  Parliament  of  Religions  begins  Mon- 
day, September  nth,  10  a.m. 

1894.  Death  of  Kossuth,  March  20th,  of  Holmes,  October  7th,  of 

Lucy  Stone,  October  i8th,  and  of  Tyndall,  December  4th  ; 
Debs,  leader  of  a  riot  in  Chicago,  enjoined  by  U.  S.  judges, 
July  2d,  and  put  down  by  Federal  troops  ;  reduction  of  U. 
S.  tariff,  August  2d  ;  Home  Rule  approved  by  House  of 
Commons,  September  ist,  refused  by  House  of  Lords, 
September  8th  ;  universal  suffrage  and  extension  of  local 
self-government  in  England  ;  a  professor  in  University  of 
Texas  dismissed  for  evolutionism. 

1895.  Death  of  Frederick  Douglass,  February  20th,  and  of  Huxley, 

June  29th  ;  rebellion  in  Cuba  ;  men  arrested  in  New  York 
City  for  selling  ice,  umbrellas,  etc.,  on  Sunday  ;  eight  men 
who  had  worked  on  that  day,  after  keeping  Saturday  as  the 
Sabbath,  forced  to  labour  in  the  chain-gang  in  Tennessee. 

1896.  British  Museum,    National  Gallery,   and    other  institutions 

opened  to  the  public  on  Sunday,  May  24th,  and  afterwards  ; 
two  Sabbath-breakers  shot  dead  that  same  day  by  a  police- 
man in  Massachusetts  ;  death  of  William  Morris,  October 
3d ;  Democratic  candidates  defeated  on  a  free-silver  plat- 
form, November  3d. 

1897.  Dingley  Bill  to  increase  tariff,  signed  July  24th  ;  death  of 

Henry  George,  October  27th. 

1898.  War  declared  by  U.  S.  A.  against  Spain,  April  21st ;  death 

of  Gladstone,  Ascension  Day,  May  19th  ;  independence  of 
Cuba  secured  by  treaty,  August  I2th. 

1899.  Death  of  IngersoU,  July  2ist. 


1»,Q  >■.?=!-.•'  I 


INDEX 


Abbot,  Francis  E.,  Ph.D.,  170- 
176. 

Abbott,  Lyman,  D.D.,  200. 

Abolitionism,  in  England,  34,  43; 
in  France,  3,  57,58;  in  the 
Border  States,  74-77,98,  113; 
in  the  North,  7S-96,  101-104, 
106,  III,  130-133,  143,  144, 
153.  154-  ■^^^  ^^^'^  Emancipa- 
tion, Free  Soilers,  Republican 
party,  and  Slavery. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  84,  89, 
90. 

Adams,  Robert  C,  178. 

Adler,  Felix,  Ph.D.,  170. 

Advertisements,  tax  on,  41-43. 

Affirmation  instead  of  oath,  162, 

Agassiz,  Louis,  137. 
Aggressive    Liberals,    the,     175, 

176,  179,  180. 
Agnostics,  170,  174,  201. 
Akron,  Ohio,  155. 
Alabama,  81. 

Alexander  L  of  Russia,  17-26. 
Amendments    to    the    Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  119- 

122. 
America,  American.     See  United 

States. 
American   Anti-Slavery   Society, 

the.  So. 
American  literature,  66,  67,  90- 

93,  125-145. 
American    Secular    Union,    the, 

I  So. 
Afnericatt  Sentinel,  the,  179. 
Amherst  College,  105. 


197; 

See 


The, 


Amusements,     necessary, 

prohibited,    67-69,     128. 

also  Sunday  recreation. 
Anarchism,  ill,  133,  144. 
Andes,  the,  24. 
Angels    of  Buena    Vista, 

92. 
Annexation   of   Texas,   the,    76, 

84,  85,  89-92. 
"  Anniversary  Week,"  i6g. 
Anti-Corn-Law  League,  the,  50, 

51- 
Antietam,  battle  of,  1 18. 
Anti-Sabbath    conventions,   168, 

i6g,  172-174,  177-179- 
Anti-slavery  conventions,  86,  83- 

90,  106,  131. 
Anti-slavery  societies,  80,  81,  88, 

loi,  131. 
Anti-vivisection,  147-150,  188. 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  the, 

185. 
Archbishops,    Roman   Catholic, 

185,  186. 
Archipelago,  the  Grecian,  22. 
Argentine  Republic,  the,  24. 
Aristocratic  Sunday,  our,  230. 
Arizona,  227. 
Arkansas,  166,  211. 
Arrests,  arbitrary,  in   U.   S.  A., 

115-117. 
Art  Museum,   the  Boston,    173, 

I  So. 
Assassins  in  the  name  of  liberty, 

19,  20. 
Assembly,  the  French,  204. 
Atheists,'  146,  160-164,  170,  174, 

179,  180. 


245 


246 


Index 


Austerlitz,  battle  of,  2. 
Austria,  2,  6,  7,   18-22,   26,    58- 

61,  232. 
Ayacucho,  battle  of,  25. 


Ballot,  demanded  by  Bentham, 
29 ;  by  the  Chartists,  47  ; 
granted  to  freedmen,  121-124. 

Baltimore,  Md.,  abolitionists  in, 
before  1830,  75-77. 

Banks,  national,  70-72,  214. 

Baptists,  the,  82,  83,  155. 

Barnaby  Rtidge,  44. 

Baseball,  222,  228-230. 

"  Battle  of  the  Nations,"  the, 
7,  8,  10. 

Bavaria,  6,  7. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  108. 

Beecher,  Lyman,  D.D.,  226. 

Beethoven,  17. 

Belfast,  46. 

Belgium,  benefited  by  low  tar- 
iffs, 53,  54  ;  revolts  from  Hol- 
land, 38,  39. 

Bellows,  H.  W.,  D.D.,  222. 

Bentham,  Jeremy,  29,  30. 

Benton,  Sen.  Thomas  H.,  99. 

Beranger  imprisoned,  20. 

Berlin,  insurrection  at,  58. 

Besant,  Mrs.,  161,  163. 

Bible,  the,  and  science,  139,  160, 
191-193  ;  and  slavery,  133  ; 
and  women's  rights,  153,  155- 
157,  160  ;  study  checked  by 
clergy,  67,  141. 

Biennial  sessions,  217. 

Bigloui  Papers,  The,  92. 

Birdofredoin  Sawiit,  92. 

Birmingham,  39,  40,  50. 

Birney,  James  G.,  86,  89. 

Bishops,  the  Anglican,  opposed 
to  reform,  10,  11,  35,  40,  43, 
46,  51,  52,  149,  191. 

Blaine,  James  G.,  122. 

Blasphemy,  punishments  for,230. 

"  Bloomer  Convention,"  the, 
156. 

Boards  of  health,  202,  206-209, 
217. 

Bohemia,  58,  60. 

Bolivar,  24,  25. 


Bonaparte,  Louis  Napoleon,  60, 
61. 

Bonney,  Charles  Carroll,  184, 
186. 

"  Border-ruiifians,"  the,  106. 

Border  States,  abolitionism  in, 
74-76,  94-9S,  111-113. 

Boston,  Mass.,  78,  80,  83,  87, 
90,  lOi,  103,  126,  130,  142, 
163,  169,  221,  225,  229. 

Boston  Public  Library,  the,  221. 

Bourbons,  the,  38. 

Bozzaris,  22. 

Bradlaugh,  Charles,  127,  160- 
163,  165-167,  193. 

Bright,  John,  51. 

Bristol,  riot  at,  43. 

Britain,  Great,  and  Ireland,  15, 
27,  43-46,  53  ;  anti-vivisection 
agitation  in,  147-152  ;  at  war 
with  Napoleon,  2,  4,  6,  10 ; 
benefited  by  common  schools, 
207,  208  ;  benefited  by  free 
trade,  52-54,  220  ;  benefited 
by  peace,  27-35,  39-45,  53" 
55  ;  delivers  Greece,  23,  34 ; 
literature  of,  30-33,  44,  45, 
54-57,  190-199  ;  manufac- 
turers of,  2,  II,  49,  52-54  ; 
oppression  and  poverty  in, 
10-14,  27,  41,  42,  48  ;  protects 
South  America,  34 ;  reforms 
in,  34,  35,  39-44,  49-54,  64, 
160-163,  183  ;  Sunday  in,  44, 
183,  221,  223,  229,  230;  wo- 
men's rights  in,  1 59-161.  See 
also  Emerson,  Spiritualism, 
and  Transcendentalism. 

British  Medical  Association,  the, 
149. 

British  Museum,  the,  183, 

Brook  Farm,  134. 

Brooklyn  Ethical  Association, 
the,  200. 

Brotherhood  of  man,  the,  184, 
1S6. 

Brougham,  Lord,  39. 

Brown,  John,  106,  ill,  112,  131, 
194. 

Brown  University,  79,  105. 

Browning,  Robert,  54,  147. 

Brussels,  insurrection  at,  38,  39. 


Index 


247 


Brutus,  31. 
Bryant,  Wm.  C,  66. 
Buchanan,  Pres.  James,  log. 
Buddhists,  the,  185-187. 
Buena     Vista,    The   Angels    of, 

92. 
Buenos  Ayres,  25. 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  6g,  229. 
Bulwer-Lytton,  42. 
Byron,  Lord,  23,  31-33,  54. 

Csesar  and  Napoleon,  26. 

Calhoun,  John  C,  79. 

California,  96-101,  112,  212,  227. 

Canada,  117,  166-168,  172,  180, 
230. 

Canning,  George,  23,  34,  35. 

Canterbury,  the  Archbishop  of, 
162,  1S5. 

Capital  punishment,  58. 

Carabolo,  battle  of,  24. 

Carbonari,  the,  21,  32. 

Cardinal  virtues,  194. 

Card-playing  on  Sunday  pun- 
ished, 229. 

Carlile,  Richard,  45. 

Carlsbad  conference,  20. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  25,  55-57,  60, 
126,  146,  147,  188. 

Carpenter,  Wm.  B.,  148. 

Cass,  Gen.  Lewis,  95,  96. 

Catholic  emancipation,  35, 

Cato,  31. 

Cavour,  Count,  61. 

Centennial  Exhibition  at  Phila- 
delphia, 172,  173. 

Ceres,  discovery  of  the  planet,  17. 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  D.D.,  222. 

Channing,  Wm.  E.,  D.D.,  66- 
68,  78,  125. 

Channing,  Rev.  Wm.  H.,  147. 

Chaplains,  64,  171. 

"  Charity  concerts,"  178. 

Charles  X.  of  P" ranee,  20,  36-3S, 
57. 

Charleston,  S.  C,  80,  114,  122, 
123. 

Chartists,  the,  47,  48,  50,  54. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  102,  113. 

Chesapeake,  the  frigate,  4. 

Chevalier,  Michel,  73,  74. 

Chicago,  163,  178-187,  222. 


Chicago    Exposition,    the,    181— 

187,  222. 
Children,  cruelty  to  factory,  12, 

34- 

Chili,  24. 

Christmas  Carol,  A,  44. 

Cincinnati,  Ohio,  68. 

Clay,  Henry,  71,  72,  86,  91,  95, 
96,  100,  lOI. 

Clergy  and  slavery,  78,  So-82, 
87,  89,  101-105,  112, 118, 124, 
125,  132,  152,  153,  168;  and 
subjection    of    women,     152— 

159- 
Clergywomen,  157-159,  186. 
Cobbe,  Miss,  135,  147-151,  183, 

194. 
Cobbett,  ^YilHam,  13,  31,  39,  47. 
Cobden,  Richard,  49-54. 
Code  A'apoleon,  the,  3. 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,  126. 
Colly er.  Rev.  Robert,  172. 
Colombia,  24. 
Colorado,  119,  120. 
Colours,    revolutionary,    19,   21, 

37,  62.  _ 

Columbia,  District  of.      Se£  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia. 
Columbian  Exposition,  the,  181— 

187,  222. 
Commons,  House  of,  10,  40-44, 

49,  52,  150,  161. 
Commune,  Parisian,  61-63. 
Compensation  for  slaves,  76,  77. 
Compromise  of  1S20,  65,  72,105  ; 

of  1833,  72;  of  1850,  100-104. 
Compromise,    the    Missouri,  65, 

72,  105. 
Compulsory  education,  174,  205. 
"  Comstock    laws,"     the,     174- 

180,  210. 

Concord  School  of  Philosophy, 

the,  146,  147. 
Conduct  of  Life,  Emerson's,  130. 
Confederacy,  the  Southern,  114, 

II7-II9; 

Confucianism,  185,  186. 
Congregationalists,  the,  65,  153, 

157. 
Congress  of  the  U.  S.  A.,  the, 
5,  23,  64,  84-89,  115-122,  174, 

181,  227,  230. 


248 


Index 


Congress  of  Vienna,  the,  17,  18. 
Connecticut,  65,  228,  229. 
Conscience,  origin  of,  195-197. 
"Conscience   Whigs,    the,"   95, 

102. 
Conscription,  7,  8,  1 15,  116. 
Conservatives,    the    British,    35, 

4S,  50. 
Constitution    of  France  in  1791, 

the,  21,  26,  204. 
Constitution  of  the  U.  S.  A.,  the, 

106. 
Constitutionalism  vs.  despotism, 

33-36,.  57. 
Convention,  the  French,  57. 
Cook,  Rev.  Joseph,  146. 
Cooper,  James  F.,  66. 
Co-operative  stores,  29. 
"Copperheads,  the,"  116. 
Corn  Laws,  the,  II,  48-55. 
Cotton  States,  the,  99-101,  113, 

114- 
Cousin,  Victor,  20. 
Craik,  Mrs.,  183. 
Crimean  War,  the,  60. 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  56. 
Cruelty  to  Animals,  the  British 

Society  for  the  Prevention  of, 
150. 
Crystal  Palace,  the,  183,  223. 
Cuba,  no. 

Dancing   on    Sunday,    224,  226, 

22S,  232. 
Darwin,  55,  148,  165,  189-194. 
Dead  letter,  Sunday  law  not  a, 

v.,  vi.,  211-213,  228,  229,  232. 
De   Bow's    Itidustrial  Resources 

of  the  Southern  and  Western 

States,  quoted,  98. 
Debt,  imprisonment  for,  44. 
Declaration    of      Independence, 

the,  154,  155,  225. 
Delaware,  94,  98,  113. 
"  Demands  of  Liberalism,  the," 

171,  172,  180. 
Democracy,  17,  36,  38,  56,  64. 
Democratic  party,  the,  5,  64,  69- 

72,  79-112. 
Democratic    Republican    party, 

the,  5. 
Denmark,  3. 


Denton,  Wm.,  139,  igr,  192. 
Descent  of  Alan,  The,  192,  193. 
Design,  argument  for,  193. 
Detroit  Presbytery,  the,  82. 
Dickens,  Charles,  44,  47,  55,  56. 
Dickinson,  Anna  E.,  158. 
Differentiation,  198,  199. 
Directory,  the  French,  7-9. 
Dissenters,  34,  35,  51. 
District  of  Columbia,  emancipa- 
tion in  the,  76,  81,  84, 85, 112  ; 

residents  disfranchised,     121  ; 

Sunday  law,  227. 
Disunionism  of  Abolitionists,  87- 

90,  151,  152. 
Do m bey  and  Son,  5  5 . 
Domestic    servants     and     their 

rights,  217,  230. 
Donisthorpe,  Wordsworth,  216, 

217. 
Douglas,    Senator    Stephen   A., 

105-110,  112. 
Douglass,  Frederick,  77,  89,  95, 

118,  119,  122. 
Dred  Scott  Decision,   the,    109, 

no. 
Dresden,  revolution  in,_38. 
Dutch,  the,  7,  8. 

Edinburgh,  129. 

Edmonds,  Judge,  140. 

Egypt,  the  Pasha  of,  23. 

Elba,  8. 

Elections  for  president,  in  1828 
76;  1832,  70;  1840,  86,  95 
1844,  89-92,  95  ;  1848, 94-98 
1852,  104 ;  1856,  107-109 
1860,112,  113;  1876,  124. 

Emancipation,  gradual,  34,  76- 
78,  124 ;  immediate,  77,  78, 
81,  1 1 8-1 20;  possible  without 
war,  76,  98,  99,  III,  112. 

Embargo,  the,  5,  65. 

Emerson,  as  a  lecturer,  128-130; 
as  a  liberator,  126,  127,  183, 
184  ;  as  a  moralist,  135,  136  ; 
as  an  essayist,  127,  132  ;  as  a 
reformer,  130-133,  154,169; 
as  a  philosopher,  131,  132,  137; 
visits  England,  128,  129, 

"  Employment,  the  right  of,"  59, 
60. 


Index 


249 


England.  Sfe  Britain,  and 
Emerson. 

England,  the  Church  of,  10,  11, 
27,  35,  40,  43.  51,  149.  152, 
160,  161,  185,  191,  192. 

Episcopalians  in  U.  S.  A.,  105, 
118,  155,  185,  222,  226. 

Equality  before  the  law,  i,  2,  8, 
35  ;  political,  i,  8,  g  ;  re- 
ligious, 2,  9,  174. 

£ssays,  Emerson's,  127,  131,  132. 

"  Ethical  Culture  societies,"  the, 
170. 

Evolutionism,  55,  139,  165-168, 
174,  186-202. 

Exemption  of  churches  from  tax- 
ation, 170, 171,  174,  179. 

Experience,  the  philosophy  of, 
30,  136,  188,  194. 

Exposition,  the  World's  Colum- 
bian, 181-187,  222. 

Extension  of  slavery,  76,  89-99, 
106. 

Factories,  11,  12,  34,  46. 
"  Fanny  Wright  men,"  85. 
Fast  days,  64,  171. 
Federalists,  the,  65,  67,  71. 
Ferdinand  TV.  of  Naples,  21. 
Ferrier,  Professor,  148. 
Fichte,  J.  G.,  18,  126. 
Fifteenth  Amendment,  the,  122- 

124. 
Fillmore,  Pres.  Millard,  103. 
Fishing    on     Sunday   punished, 

228,  229. 
Fiske,  John,  200. 
Flags  of  revolutionists,   19,    21, 

38,  62. 
Fletcher,  a  statistician,  207. 
Florida,  92,  98,  118. 
Fort  Sumter,  114. 
Foster,  Stephen,  87. 
Fourier,    Fran9ois  C.    M.,    134, 

136. 
Fourteenth     Amendment,      the, 

120,    121. 

France,  before  1801,  iv.,  7-9,  17, 
26,  37,  57,  203,  204;  litera- 
ture, 56,  57  ;  tariff,  53  ;  the 
first  empire,  iv.,  i-io,  26; 
the  last  kings,  20,  23,  26,  35- 


39,  51,  58;  the  Republic  of 
1848-1851,  57-60  ;  the  Second 
Empire,  60,  61  ;  the  Third  Re- 
public, iii.,  62,  63. 

Francia,  dictator  of  Paraguay, 
25.  56. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  66. 

Freedman's  Bureau,  the,  158. 

Freedom  of  speech.  See  Liberty 
and  Restrictions. 

Freedom  of  the  press.  See  Lib- 
erty and  Restrictions. 

Free  Enquirer,  The,  45. 

Free  love,  134-136. 

Free  Religious  Association,  the 
147,  167,  169-179,  184, 186. 

Free-soilers,  the,  94-99,  102,  104, 
130. 

"Freethinkers,"  174,  177,  iSo.- 

Freethought  Federation,  the, 
180, 1S6. 

Free  trade,  agitation  for,  43,  48- 
52,  65,  66.  72,  73,  91-93,  104  ; 
benefits  of,  52-54,  73,  74,  104, 
219. 

Free-Will  Baptists,  the,  82. 

French  Republics,     ^V^"  France. 

Fugitive  slaves,  laws  for  captur- 
ing. Si,  84,  88,  99-103,  112, 
130,  132  ;  rescue  of,  102,  103, 
117.  143- 

Gag-rule,  the,  84,  85. 

Gambling,  laws  against,  206,  210. 

Garfield,  Pres.  James  A.,  139. 

Garibaldi,  61. 

Garnett,  H.  rf.,  D.D.,  87. 

Garrison,  as  an  abolitionist,  77- 
90,  III,  153;  as  an  advocate 
of  disunion,  87-90,  106,  ill, 
152  ;  breaks  with  other  aboli- 
tionists, 86,  87,  153  ;  compared 
to  Luther,  86  ;  favours  eman- 
cipation of  women,  153,  157  ; 
opposes  Sabbatarianism,  168, 
172. 

Garrison,  Wm.  L.,  Jr.,  177,  17S. 

Garrisonians,  the,  80,  88-90, 
114,  131,  133,  140,  154,  168, 
169. 

Genius  of  Universal  Emancipa- 
tion, The,  yt'-jS. 


250 


Index 


Geology,  t6o,  192. 

George  III.,  of  England,  10. 

George  IV.,  of  England,  10,  13, 

27,  33,  35- 
Georgia,  79,  96,  98,  1 14,  1 18,  21 1. 
German  philosophy,   16,  17,   67, 

126.     See  also   Hegel,    Kant, 

and  Schelling. 
Germany,  3,  4,  9,  16-20,  58,  61, 

63,  172,  192,  217. 
Gladstone,  William  E.,  192. 
Goethe,  18,  126. 
Golf  punished  as  Sabbath-break- 
ing, 227-229. 
Government,  just   limits  of,  v., 

65,  159,  202-219,  227. 
Grant,  Gen.  U.  S.,  69,  122. 
Gray,  Prof.  Asa,  167,  168. 
"Great     National     Pickpocket, 

the,"  216. 
"  Great    Unknown,    the,"    200- 

202. 
Greece,    revolution    in,    22,    23, 

32-34- 
Greek  church,  the,  185. 
Grimke,  Miss  Angelina,  153. 
Guaranteed  education,  206. 
Guardian,  The  Poor  Alan's,  42. 
Guizot,  Fran9ois  P.  G. ,  20. 

Habeas  Corpus  Act  suspended, 

116,  122. 
Haeckel,  Ernst,  201. 
Hale,  John  P.,  102,  115. 
"  Hard  Times"  55. 
Harrison,  Frederic,  201. 
Harrison,  Wm.  H.,  Pres.  U.S.A. 

in  1841,  86. 
Hayti,  3. 
Hegel,  G.   W.   F.,   16,    17,    38, 

141,  145,  146. 
Heinzen,  Karl,  172. 
Helper's   Impending  Crisis,   98, 

III. 
Herford,  Rev.  Brooke,  226. 
Heterogeneity,  199, 
Hetherington,  Henry,  42,  47. 
Higginson,  T.  W.,  172. 
"  Higher    Law,    the,"  84,    102, 

133-136. 
Hindoos,  161,  163,  170,  185. 
Hingham,  Mass.,  90. 


Hofer,  Andreas,  6,  31. 

Holland,  7,  8,  18. 

Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  115. 

Hoist's  Constitutional  History. 
quoted,  98. 

Holyoake,  George  Jacob,  161. 

Home  Rule,  61,  163. 

Homogeneity,  198. 

Hotel  de  Ville,  the,  37. 

House  of  Representatives,  the 
U.  S.  A.     See  Representatives. 

Hudson  River,  the,  216. 

Hughes,  Archbishop,  108. 

Hugo,  Victor,  56-59,  63. 

Humboldt,  Wilhelm  von,  204. 

Hungary,  58-61. 

Hunt,  Leigh,  13. 

Huntington,  Bishop  F.  D.,  132. 

Hurlbut,  Judge  E.  P.,  176,  177. 

Husband  and  wife,  right  rela- 
tions of,  217. 

Huxley,  Thomas  H.,  183,  191, 
192,  201,  216. 

Idaho,  227. 

Illinois,  109,  no,  112,  166,  168, 

181-187.     See  also  Chicago. 
Impressment  of  sailors,  4,  43. 
Imprisonment  for  debt,  44. 
Indecent  literature  excluded  from 

the  United  States  Mail,    174- 

180,  210. 
Independent     theists,     174-179, 

200.       See  also  Emerson,  Par- 
ker, and  Spiritualism. 
Index,   The,  167,  169-172,  223. 
India,  10,  43,  161,  170,   185. 
Individualism,   32,   33,   84,    102, 

132-136,    144,   202-206,    214- 

220. 
Ingersoll,    Robert  G. ,    163-165, 

172-175- 
Inglis,  Henry  D.,  15. 
Innate  ideas,  126,  127,  131-133, 

136,  137,  141,  145,   165,    194- 

Inquisition,  the,  6,  26. 

Integration,  ig8,  199. 

Internal   improvements,   70,   71, 

117.  215. 
International  exhibition  in  1876, 

172,  173. 


Inde: 


251 


International  Medical  Congress, 

149. 
International   Religious  Liberty 

Association,  the,  179. 
International  Workingmen's  As- 
sociation, the,  62. 
Intuitions,     126-129,     I3i-I33. 

136-139,  141,   145,   146,    194- 

197. 
Investigator,   The,  78,    153,   165, 

167,  172,  175,  179. 
Ireland,  15,  27,   33,   35,   43-46. 

51,  53,  161-163. 
"  Irrepressible     conflict,"      the, 

no. 
Irving,  Washington,  66. 
Italy,   3,   lo,  18,  20-22,   58,  60, 

61. 

Jackson,    Pres.   Andrew,    69-72, 

76,  80. 
Jackson,  Gen.  "  Stonewall,"  194. 
Jain  religion,  186. 
Jay,  Judge  Wm.,  8r. 
Jefferson,   Pres.    Thomas,   5,  64, 

66,  85. 
Jena,  battle  of,  2. 
Jesuits,  20,  21. 
Jewesses,  186. 
Jews,  the,  35,  170-174,  177,  184- 

186,  229. 
Johnson,  Samuel,  LL.D,,  224. 
Jones,  Rev.  J.  LI.,  184. 
Josephine,  6. 
Jury,  trial  by,  100. 
Justice,  Spencer  on,  202. 

Kansas,  105-110,  152. 
Kant,  Immanuel,  126,  194. 
Kelley,  Miss  Abby,  154. 
Kentucky,  74,   76,  98,  99,   104, 

113- 
Kingsley,  Rev.  Charles,  226. 
Kneeland,  Abner,  78. 
"  Knowledge,    The    Society  for 

the  Repeal  of  all  Taxes  on, "42. 
Know-Nothings,  the,  107-109. 
Kotzebue,  August  F.  F.,  19. 

Labor  reform,  78,  166. 
Lamarck,  Jean  Baptiste,  Cheval- 
ier de,  137. 


Land  owned  by  peasants,  i. 
Land,  private  property  in,  i,  202. 
Landor,  Walter  Savage,  31. 
Lawrence,  Kansas,  106. 
League,  the  Liberal,  172-177. 
Lecky,  W.  E.  H.,  147,  1S3,  217. 
Lectures,  demand  for,  128-130, 

143,  160,  166. 
I>eeds.  39. 

Legal  tender  Act,  the,  115. 

Leipsic,  battle  at,  7,  8,  10,  18. 

Lent,  225. 

Le  Roi  s' amuse,  57. 

Les  Miserablis,  57-59. 

Liberal  Christians,  68,  146,  174, 
177,  191,  200.  See  also  Uni- 
tarians and  Universalists. 

Liberal  League,  the,  172-177. 

"  Liberalism,  the  Demands  of," 
171,  172,   180. 

Liberals,  Militant,  vii. 

Liberator,     The,    78-So,    87-89, 

.153,  167- 
Liberty,  commercial,  8,  34,  43, 
51-54,  65,  66,  72-74,  92,  214, 
219  ;  intellectual,  67,  127,  131, 

144,  150,  158,  164-166,  180, 
195  ;  of  amusement,  173,  177, 
179.  197.  213,  217,  221-232; 
of  speech,  39,  54,  84,  85,  161, 
163,  205  ;  of  the  press,  S,  13, 
38,  39,  43,  164  ;  personal,  3, 
34,  43,  96,  102,  103,  133,  144, 

145,  150,  153-164,  177-183. 
202-206,  210-223,  227  ;  politi- 
cal, 8,  23,  38,  41,  43,  4b,  54, 
57,  61,  63,  64,   107,   120-124. 

145,  i6i,  202-206,  210-214, 
219;  religious,  2,  3.  8,  34.35. 
38,  43,  61,  63-65,69,  131, 145, 

146,  162,  163,  177-188,  199- 
206,  211,  219.  See  also  Re- 
strictions. 

"  Liberty  men "  and  Liberty 
party,  86-90,  95,  96. 

Libraries,  public,  218,  221,  230. 

Limerick,  46. 

Limits  of  government,  for  na- 
tions, v.,  65,  159,  202-20S. 
213-219;  for  States  of  the 
U.  S.  A.,  209,  213  ;  for  towns 
and  cities,  20S,  20g. 


252 


Index 


Lincoln,  Abraham,  86,  109-120. 
Linnaean  Society,  the,  190. 
Liquor  laws,  205-207,  210. 
Literature,     American,    66,    67, 

90-93,   125-145  ;  English,  29- 

31,  41-45,    54-57,    126,    190- 

193,  198. 
Little  Dorr  it,  44. 
"  Little  Eva,"  103. 
Local  self-government,  2,  8,  46, 

54,  60,  63,  208-219. 
Locke,  John,  204. 
"  Loco  Focos,"  the,  85. 
Lombardy,  18,  22,  58-61. 
London,   39,   40,    129,  130,   154, 

1S3,  190. 
Lords,  the  House  of,  10,  40,  43, 

52,  150. 
Louis  XVIII.,  of  France,  8,  20. 
Louis  Philippe,  38,  57,  58. 
Louisiana,  119, 123, 124,206,228. 
Louvre,  the,  37,  38,  62. 
Lovejoy,  Rev.  Elijah  P.,  83. 
Lowell,    James    Russell,   90-92, 

96,  130. 
Lowell,  Mass.,  73. 
Lundy,  Benjamin,  76-78. 
Luther  compared  with  Garrison, 

86. 
Luxuries,  censures  on,  145. 
Lyell,  Sir  Charles,  73,  160,  192. 
Lyons,  231,  232. 

Madison,  President  James,  64. 
Madrid,  5,  26. 
Maine,  65,  82,  121,  228. 
Maine  Baptist  Convention,  the, 

82. 
Manchester,  14,  39,  42,  49,  50. 
Manin,  Daniel,  60. 
Manners  and  Fashion,    Spencer 

on,  204,  205, 
Manning,    Cardinal,    149,     162, 

igr. 
Manual  training,  219,  231,  232. 
Man  versus  the  State,  Spencer's, 

203. 
Marion  de  Lor  me,  57. 
Marks  of  design,  193. 
Marmont,  Marshal,  37. 
Marriage,    161,    164,    174,    195, 

206,  217. 


Martial  law,  116. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  73,  74, 
154. 

Martineau,  James,  D.D.,  147, 

Marx,  Karl,  62. 

Maryland,  74-77,  98,  99,  108, 
III,  113,  211. 

Massachusetts,  abolitionism  in, 
85-87,  102-106,  144  ;  Sunday 
laws  of,  168,  177,  178,  2IO- 
213,  222-229. 

Massachusetts  Anti-Slavery  So- 
ciety, the,  88. 

Massaniello,  39. 

Materialists,  the,  174,  179,  180. 

Mazzini,  Giuseppe,  60. 

Medical  Association,  the  British, 
149- 

Medical  Congress,  the  Interna- 
tional, 149. 

"  Mediums'  National  Defence 
Association,"  the,  141. 

Messenia,  23. 

Methodists,  the,  82,  83,  102, 
154,  155,  162,  185,  193. 

Metternich,  Prince,  19,  21. 

Mexico,  24,  89,  92-95. 

Michigan,  87. 

Milan,  231,  232. 

Mill,  James,  30. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  159,  205, 
206. 

Milwaukee,  Wis.,  103. 

Miracles,  164. 

Mississippi,  gg. 

Mississippi  River,  the,  82. 

Missouri,  65,  75,  76,  98,  99,  106, 
ri2,  211,  229. 

Missouri  Compromise,  the,  65. 

Mobs,  pro-slavery,  83-85,  100. 

Monroe  doctrine,  34,  66,  67. 

Monroe,  Pres.  James,  34,  66. 

Morea,  the,  23. 

Moscow,  7. 

Moslems,  the,  23,  24,  185,  186. 

Mott,  Lucretia,  154,  169,  172. 

Municipal  government,  2,  46, 
54,  60,  63,  208-219. 

Museums  in  New  York  City 
opened  Sundays,   tSo. 

Naples,  22,  39,  61, 


Index 


■03 


Napoleon  Bonaparte,  as  em- 
peror, i-io,  19,  31,  37,  57, 
69  ;  results  of  his  reign,  9,  13, 
16,  24-26.      See  also  iv. 

Napoleon  III.,  60,  61. 

Nation,  functions  of  a,  v.,  203, 
213-219. 

National  banks,  70-73,  214. 

National  Guard,  the,  20,  37,  58, 
61-63. 

National  Liberal  League,  the, 
172-177. 

Nationalism,  vi.,  202,  203. 

Natural  Selection,  theory  of, 
i8g. 

Nature,  Emerson's  pamphlet  on, 
127-129. 

Navarino,  battle  of,  23. 

Negro  suffrage,  121-124. 

Netherlands,  5-8,  38,  39. 

Nevada,  119,  120. 

New  England,  81-87,  100,  128- 
130,  152,  153,  228,  230. 

New  England  Anti-Slavery  So- 
ciety, the,  80. 

New  Hampshire,  121,  228. 

New  Jersey,  112,  121,  226,  228, 
229. 

New  Mexico,  100. 

New  Orleans,  98,  113. 

New  School  Presbyterians,  the, 
118. 

New  South  Wales,  benefited  by 
low  tariff,  53,  54,  219, 

Newspapers  taxed  in  Great  Brit- 
ain, 41-43- 

New  Testament,  the,  156,  160. 

Newton,  Rev.  Heber,  230. 

New  York  City,  41,  69,  71,  86, 
loi,  105,  123,  153,  211,  212, 
228,  229. 

New  York,  the  State  of,  65,  76, 
8r,  85,  91,  94,  96,  228,  230. 

Nicholas  Nickleby,  44. 

Ninety-Three,  57. 

North  American  JReview,  The, 
66,  164. 

Northampton,  England,  161. 

North  Carolina,  75,  98,  iii,  118. 

Norway,  18,  226. 

Oaths  of  allegiance,  162,  171. 


Obscene  literature  excluded  from 

U.  S.  Mails,  174,  175,  210. 
O'Connell,  Daniel,  46. 
O'Connor,  Feargus,  51. 
Ohio,  76,  85,  87,  94,  205,  211. 
Ohio  valley,  the,  82,  105. 
Old  Curiosity  Shop,    The,  44. 
Old   Testament,   the,   160,   178, 

179- 

Oliver  Twist,  44,  47. 
Open  Court,   The,  200. 
Orange,  the  prince  of,  7. 
"  Orange  Peel,"  35,  39. 
Oregon,  94,  96,  112,  166. 
Origin  of  Species,  The,  igo,  191. 
Owen,  Robert,  27-29. 
Owen,  Robert  Dale,  69. 

Pain,  utility  of,  197. 

Paine,  Thomas,  24,  47,  69,  193. 

Paper,  duty  on,  41. 

Paraguay,  25. 

Parent  and  child,  relations  of, 
217. 

Paris,  8,  36-38,  58-63. 

Parker,  Theodore,  as  an  aboli- 
tionist, 92,  93,  loi,  113,  128; 
as  a  preacher,  135-137,  141- 
146,  155,  168. 

Parliament,  the  British,  15,  27, 
34,  35,  41,  147,  150,   161-163. 

Parliament  of  Religions,  the, 
183-188. 

Parliamentary    reform,    30,    35, 

39-41. 
Parochial  schools,  108. 
Parseeism,  185,  186. 
"  Partington,  Mrs.,"  40. 
Pasteur,  Louis,  148. 
Paul,  Jean,  126. 
Peace,    blessings  of,   to  Britain, 

26-35,    39-45,  52-55 ;   to 

France,  35-38,  57,  58,  63  ;  to 
Ireland,  46,  53. 

Peasant  land-owners,  i. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert.  35,  39,  52. 

Peloponnesus,  the,  23. 

Pennsylvania,  against  slavery, 76, 
94  ;  for  protective  tariffs,  65, 
112;  Sunday  laws  of,  168, 
211,  214,  228.  See  also  29, 
92,  103,  121,  165. 


254 


Index 


Pennsylvania  Hall,  83. 

Penny  journals,  law  against,  41- 

43-' 
Penny  postage,  43. 
"  People's  Charter,"  the,  47. 
Personal  liberty  bills,  103. 
Peru,  24. 

Peterloo  massacre,  the,  14,  50. 
Petition,  the  right  of,  84-86. 
Philadelphia,   So,    83,    123,    172, 

Philanthrophic  centuries,  the,vii. 

Philippe,  Louis,  38,  58. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  88,  89,  loi, 
128,  152,  155,  161,  172. 

Philosophy.  See  Emerson,  Ex- 
perience, German,  Hegel,  In- 
tuitions, Kant,  Parker,  Schell- 
ing,  and  Spencer. 

Pickwick  Papers,   The,  44,  55. 

Piedmontese,  22. 

Plato,  126. 

Pleasure,  value  of,  197,  222-227. 

Poland,  6,  7,  18. 

Polk,  Pres.  James  K.,  gi,  92, 
96,  97. 

Poor  do  not  grow  poorer,  53,  219. 

Poor  Man's  Guardian,   The,  42. 

Post-office,  64,  65,  84,  203,  214. 

Potato  rot,  the,  51-53. 

Potter,  Bishop,  222. 

Potter,    Rev.  Wm.  J.,   167,  184. 

Presbyterians,  the,  82,  83,  155, 
186,  193. 

Press,  liberty  of  the.  See 
Liberty  of  the  Press  and  Re- 
strictions. 

Prince  Regent,  the,  10,  13. 

Princeton,  192. 

Principles  of  Psychology,  Spen- 
cer's, 194-197,  223. 

Principles  of  Sociology,  Spencer's, 
217. 

Private  jiroperty  in  land,  i,  202. 

Proclamations  of  Emancipation, 
118,  119. 

Progress,  the  law  of,  199. 

Prohibition  of  sale  of  intoxicat- 
ing liquor,  205-207,  210. 

Profiietheus  Unbound,  32,  33. 

Prosecutions  under  Sunday  laws, 
v.,  vi.,  211-213,  228,  229. 


Protectionists,    the,    65,   71,   72, 

91,  92,  112,  117. 
Prussia,  2,  7-9,    19,   21,    26,   38, 

58,  61. 
Public  schools,  28,  38,   43,    107. 

108,  169,   171,   202,    205-208, 

216. 
Pulpit,  women   in   the,  157-159, 

186. 
Puritans,  the,  56,  222-227. 
Putnam,  Judge  A.  A.,  177. 

Quakers,  82,  158,  162,  225. 

Pallying-Cry,    J.    R.     Lowell's, 

90,  91- 

Reade,  Charles,  183. 

Reading-rooms  on  Sunday,  231. 

Recreation,  Sunday.  See  Sun- 
day recreation. 

Religion  of  Science,  the,  200. 

Religious  Liberty.  See  Liberty, 
religious. 

Renan,  Ernest,  63,  146. 

Representatives,  the  U.  S.  A., 
House  of,  5,  23,  64,  84,  89- 
113,  117,  121,  181. 

Republican  party,  the,  106-124, 

i3f- 
Restrictions,  on  commercial  lib- 
erty, 2-11,   22-25,  48,  72,  73, 

91,  112,  117,  214,  215  ;  on  iik- 
tellectual  liberty,  67,  68,  125, 
142,  190-194,  230  ;  on  liberty 
of  amusement,  43,  67-69,  128, 
168,  173,  227-230;  of  speech, 
14,  19,-21,  24,  25,  45,  57,  58, 
73-85,  87,  loi,  115-117,  160, 
167,  191-193  ;  on  liberty  of 
the  press,  13,  14,  20-28,  36, 
41,  42,  58,  79-81,  201  ;  on 
personal  liberty,  3-8,  12,  32, 
44,  58,  loi,  115-117,  168,  169, 
173,  210-213,  227-230;  on 
political  liberty,  i,  10,  18,  22- 
28,  45-47,  121 -124;  on  re- 
ligious liberty,  10,  15,  16,  22- 
26,  45,  78,  107,  108,  168,  173, 
186,  211,  225.  See  also  Slav- 
ery and  Women,  emancipa- 
tion of. 

Results  of  free  trade  in  America, 
73,  74  ;  in  England,  52-54,  219. 


Index 


255 


Revolutionist   flags,   19,    21,    38, 

62. 
Revolutions   in    France,    36-38, 

57-61  ;  Greece,  22, 23, 32-34  ; 

Naples,  22,  39,  6r  ;  Sardinia, 

22 ;    South    America,    24,    25, 

34;  Spain,  2-6,  23-26. 
Rhode  Island,  21  r,  228. 
Richmond  Inquirer,  The,  75. 
Richmond  Sotciherner,  The,  98 
Rip  Van  Winkle,  66. 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  138,  154,  156. 
Roman    Catholics,    the,    10,    13, 

32,  43,  74,  107,  108,  118,  185, 

186,  192. 
Rome,  26,  38,  60,  61. 
Rose,    Mrs.    Ernestine  L.,    153, 

156. 
Rotten  boroughs,  the,  30. 
Ruskin,  John,  147,  150. 
Russia,  6-10,  19,  21,  23,  26,  34, 

127,  146,  217,  219. 

Sabbath,  the,  16S,  173,  17S,  211. 
St.  Louis,  Mo.,  98,  129. 
Salem,  Mass.,  65,  66. 
Sanitary  Commission,  the,  158. 
Sanitary    legislation,    advantage 

of,  217. 
San  Martin,  Gen.,  24,  25. 
Sardinia,  22,  58-61. 
"  Saturdarians,"  211. 
Saturday    evening    amusements, 

173.  177- 
Savage,  Rev.  Minot  J.,  172,  200. 
Savoyards,  22. 
Saxony,  232. 
Schelling,  Friedrich  W.  J.  von, 

126,  141,  146. 
Schiller,  18,  126. 
Schools,    public.     See    Public 

schools. 
Scotland,  39,  43. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  30,  31. 
Secessionists,  the  Southern,   72, 

99,  113-115,  131- 
Secularists,  the,  161,  180. 
Self-sacrifice,  limits  to,  157,  197, 

198. 
Senate,  the   U.    S.,   71,    75,   85, 

89,  94,  99,  loi,  109,  120,  181. 
Serfdom,  3,  24. 


Servants,  rights  of,  217,  230. 

.Seward,  William  H.,  102,  no. 

Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe,  32,  33, 
51,  54.  146. 

Shinto  religion,  the,  185,  186. 

Sicily,  22. 

Slavery,  in  North  America,  65, 
68,  74-120,  130-134,  140-144, 
152-154;  in  South  America, 
24  ;  in  the  West  Indies,  3,  34, 
57,  58. 

Slave-trade,  the,  34,  43,  57. 

Smith,  Rev.  Sydney,  40,  46,  66. 

Smithsonian  Museum,  214,  230. 

Social  Statics,  Spencer's  202- 
207,  214. 

Socialism,  in  practice,  vi.,  28, 
2g,  5S-63  ;  in  theory,  vi.,  28, 
62,  134,  21S. 

"Society  for  the  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Animals,"  the  Brit- 
ish, 150. 

"  Society  for  the  Repeal  of  all 
Taxes  on  Knowledge,  the," 
42. 

Sociology,  Principles  of,  Spen- 
cer's, 217. 

South  America,  24,  25,  34,  140. 

South  Carolina,  72,  80,  99,  114, 
118,  122,  124,  153.  193- 

South  Kensington  Museum,  183. 

Spain,  2-6,  23-26. 

Speech,  freedom  of.  See  Lib- 
erty, and  Restrictions. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  55,  147,  165, 
183,  189,  190,  194-209,  214, 
216-218,  223,  226. 

Spiritualism,  137-141,  174,  179, 
191. 

Spoils  system,  the,  70. 

Spy,  The,  66. 

Siael,  Mme.  de,  126. 

Stanley,  Dean,  183. 

Stanton,  Mrs.  E.  Cady,  154-157. 

State  in  the  Federal  Union,  func- 
tions of  a,  209-215. 

State  rights,  104,  209-215. 

Steam-engine,  the,  II. 

Stein,  Baron  von,  3. 

Strauss,  David  V.,  146. 

Strong  governments,  203. 

Struggle  for  existence,  189,  193. 


256 


Index 


Subjection  of  Women,  The,  159. 

Suffrage,  manhood,  13,  24,  2g, 
47,  54,  161  ;  negro,  121-124  ; 
woman,  29,  155,  161,  174,  176, 
202. 

Sumner,  Charles,  86,  95,  102, 
107,  194. 

Sumter,  Fort,  114. 

Sunday,  agitation  about  observ- 
ance of,  43,  44,  64,  65,  84, 
87,  168-183  ;  laws  and  how 
they  are  enforced,  v.,  vi., 
168,  169,  186,  210-214,  228, 
229,  232  ;  mails,  64,  65,  84  ; 
not  the  Sabbath,  168,  173, 
178,  179,  211  ;  opening,  44, 
172,  173,  181-183,  221-223, 
230-232  ;  recreation,  28,  43, 
44,  67-69,  168,  172,  173,  176- 
183,  213,  217,  221-232  ;  rest, 
212,  213,  225,  227,  231  ;  So- 
ciety, the,  183. 

Supreme  Court  of  the  U.  S.  A., 
the,  70,  109. 

Survival  of  the  fittest,  the,  189, 
190. 

Sweden,  18,  226. 

Swing,  Rev.  David,  225. 

Switzerland,  2,  3,  g,  38. 

Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  103,  156,  176. 

Taoism,  185,  186. 

Tariff  of  1828,  the,  72. 

Tariffs,  protective,  effect  of,  2- 
5,  46-49,  72  ;  reasons  against, 
49,  65,  66,  2r4,  215. 

Taxation  of  Churches,  170,  171, 
174,  180. 

"  Taxes  on  Knowledge,  the  So- 
ciety for  the  Repeal  of  all," 
42. 

Taylor,   President  Zachary,  95- 

lOI. 

Taylor,  Robert,  45. 
Telegraph  and  telephone,  203. 
Tennessee,  75,  76,  193,  211-213. 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  54. 
Tests  for  office,  religious,  13,  15, 

34- 
Texas,    annexation   of,    76,    84- 
92.      See    also    99,    100,    1 1  i , 
181,   193. 


Thanksgiving  days,  64,  171. 
Theatre-going  on  Sunday,   222- 

226,  22S,  229,  232. 
Theatres,  censorship  of,   13,   21, 

57,  216. 
Theists,  independent,   174,  200. 

See  also  Emerson  and  Parker. 
Thiers,  Louis  Adolphe,  36,  38. 
Third  Republic,  the,  iii.,  62,  63. 
Thirteenth      Amendment,     the, 

119,   120. 
Thoreau,    Henry  D.,    106,    144, 

145.  204. 
Times,   The,  148. 
Tithes  in  England,  39,  43,  45, 

.51- 
Tithe   war   in   Ireland,    15,    45, 

46. 
"  Tittlebats,"  55. 
Tocqueville,  Alexis,  Comte  de, 

74,  125. 
Toleration,    vii.,    8,    34-38,    43, 

186,  199,  204. 
Tories,  the,  30,  35. 
Toussaint  I'Ouverture,  3. 
Town  or   city,    functions   of   a, 

208,  209,  215. 
Trade,    free,    49-54,    219.      See 

also  Liberty  and  Tariffs. 
Trades-unions,  217. 
Transcendental  Club,  the,  126. 
Transcendentalism,      in      Great 

Britain,   vii.,  30,   55,   56,  134, 

140,  147-151,  160  ;  in  United 

States    of   America,  viii.,   84, 

93-96,  102,  126-147,  154,  159, 

168,  191,  217. 
Troppau,  conference  af,  2i. 
Truthseeker,  The,  175,  180. 
Tuileries,  the,  37. 
Turks,  the,  22,  23,  185,  219. 
Turners,  the,  19 
Tyndall.  John,  183. 
Tyrolese,  the,  6. 

Uncle     Tonis    Cabin,    92,     103, 

104. 
Underwood,     B.    F.,     165-168, 

172-176,  186,  192. 
Unitarians,  the,  67,  82,  92,  lOl, 

136,  139,    141,   142,    145,  155- 

158,  169-174,  178,  191,  200. 


Index 


257 


United  States  of  America,  the, 
agitation  for  religious  liberty 
in,  163,  1S7  ;  aid  Greece, 
23  ;  and  South  America,  34  ; 
amendments  to  Constitution 
of,  119-122  ;  limits  of  govern- 
ment in,  207-219;  opposition 
to  evolutionism  in,  139,  igi- 
193  ;  Socialism  in,  28,  134 ; 
tariffs  of,  53.65,  72-74,  91-93, 
112  ;  women's  rights  in,  152- 
159  ;  wrongs  from  Napoleon, 
2-4.  See  also  Literature,  Slav- 
ery, Sunday  laws,  and  Trans- 
cendentalism. 

Universalists,  the,  155,  158. 

Universities,  German,  18-20. 

"Unknown,  The  Great,"  200- 
202. 

Utah,  100. 

Utilitarianism,  30,  196. 

Vallandigham,  Clement  L.,  116, 

_ 117,  205. 
^"an  Buren,  86,  go,  gi,  95,  g6. 
Venezuela,  24. 
Venice,  3,  18,  58-61. 
Vermont,  92,  g6,  104,  121,  210, 

222,  228. 
Victor  Emanuel,  King  of  Italy, 60. 
Victoria,  Australia,  203,  204. 
Vienna,  congress   of,  17,  iS,  21  ; 

insurrection  at,  58,  60. 
Vigilance  Committee,  97. 
Virchow,  Rudolph,  148. 
Virginia,  75,  80,  82,  gS,  99,  ill, 

118. 
Vivisection,  147-150. 
Voltaire,  193. 
Voysey,  Rev.  Charles,  227. 

Wages,    II,   12,  28,  34,  46,  49, 

53,  62,  73,  218. _ 
Walden,  Thoreau's,  144,  204. 
Wallace,  Alfred  R.,  igo,  ig8. 
War,  for  the  Union,   106,  114- 

iig,    161  ;    whether   it   could 

have  been  avoided,  76,  gS,  gg, 

III,  112. 
War,  influence  of,  1-27,  34,  61, 

6g,    217,    218;    of    1S12,  69; 

the  Crimean,  60  ;  the  Mexican, 

89-93. 
17 


Wars  of  Napoleon  I.,  1-3,  6-10, 

35.  57  ;  of  Napoleon  III.,  61. 
Wartburg,  iS-20. 
Waterloo,  8,  10,  18. 
Way  land,  Francis,  D.D.,  79. 
Webster,  Daniel,  66,  71,  91,  95, 

100-102. 
Weimar,  iS. 
Wellington,  the  Duke  of,  35,  39, 

52,  69. 
West  Indies,  the,  34. 
IVestininister  Review,    The,  30, 

140,  198. 
Whigs,  the  American,  71-75,  83- 

86,    89-104,    108,    109,    124  ; 

the  British,  30,  35,  41,  50. 
Whittier  John   G.,    go,    g2,   g6, 

107,  153. 
"  Who      reads      an     American 

book  ? "  66. 
Wilberforce,  William,  34. 
William  I^^,  of  England,  41. 
Williams  College,  105,  167. 
Wilmot  Proviso,  the,  g4,  g5. 
Wilson,  Henry,  gs. 
Winchell,  Alexander,  ig3. 
Wisconsin,  g7. 
Witnesses   molested    on  account 

of  unbelief,  170. 
Woman  suffrage,   29,   155,    161, 

174,  176,  202. 
Woman's  Loyal  National  League 

the,  158. 
Women,  emancipation  of,  29,45, 

78,  87,  140,  146, 153-159,  i6i, 

164,  166,  202. 
Women's  Christian  Temperance 

Union,  the,  158,  17S. 
Wordsworth,  William,  30. 
World's    Anti-Slavery     Conven- 
tion, the,  154. 
World's  Columbian  Exposition, 

the,  1S1-1S7,  222. 
Wright,   Frances,    68,    69,    153, 

1 68. 
Wyoming,  22S. 

Yale  College,  105,  192. 
Yankee  Doodle,  fine  for  playing, 
22g. 

Zoroaster,  1S3. 


i 


Sociology. 


Social  Facts  and  Forces. 

The  Factory — The  Labor  Union — The  Corporation — 
The  Railway— The  City— The  Church.  By  Wash- 
ington Gladden,  author  of  "  AppUed  Christianity," 
"Tools  and  the  Man,"  etc.     12°,  $1.25. 

"  The  book  is  full  of  invigorating  thought,  and  is  to  be  recommended  to  every 
one  who  feels  the  growing  importance  of  public  duties." — The  Outlook. 

Socialism  and  the  Social  Movement  in 
the  Nineteenth  Century. 

By  Werner  Sombart,  University  of  Breslau.  Germany. 
Translated  by  Anson  P.  Atterbury.  With  Intro- 
duction by  John  B.  Clark,  Professor  of  Political 
Economy  in  Columbia  University.     12°,  $1.25. 

"  Sombart's  treatise  on  socialism  impresses  me  as  admirable  ;  and  the  translation 
is  certainly  an  excellent  piece  of  work." — j.  B.  Clark,  Professor  of  Political 
Economy  in  Columbia  University. 

The  Sphere  of  the  State, 

or.  The  People  as  a  Body  Politic.  By  Frank  S.  Hoff- 
man, A.M.,  Professor  of  Philosophy,  Union  College. 
Second  edition.     12°,  $1.50. 

"  Professor  Hoffman  has  done  an  excellent  piece  of  work.  He  has  furnisheo 
the  student  with  a  capital  text-book  and  the  general  reader,  who  is  interested  in 
political  science,  with  much  that  is  suggestive,  much  that  is  worthy  of  his  careful 
attention." 

Anarchism. 

A  Criticism  and  History  of  the  Anarchist  Theory.  By 
E.  V.  Zenker.     12°,  $1.50. 

"  The  fullest  and  best  account  of  anarchism  ever  published.  ...  A  most 
powerful  and  trenchant  criticism." — London  Book  Gazette. 

Suggestions  Toward  an  Applied  Science 
of  Sociology. 

By  Edward  P.  Payson,  12°.     $1.25. 

"  Mr.  Payson  has  given  us  a  valuable  little  volume  on  a  very  large  and  most 
important  subject." — Fortland  (3/e.)  Press. 

Q.  P,  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  New  York  «&  London. 


Economics. 


Hadley's   Economics. 

An  Account  of  the  Relations  between  Private  Property 
and  Public  Welfare.  By  Arthur  Twining  Had- 
LEY,  Professor  of  Political  Economy,  in  Yale  Uni- 
versity.    8°,  $2.50  net. 

The  work  is  now  used  in  classes  in  Yale,  Princeton,  Harvard,  Amherst,  Dart- 
mouth, Bowdoin,  Vanderbilt,  Bucknell,  Bates,  Leland  Stanford,  University  of 
Oregon,  University  of  California,  etc. 

"The  author  has  done  his  work  splendidly.  He  is  clear,  precise,  and 
thorough.  .  .  .  No  other  book  has  given  an  equally  compact  and  intelligent 
interpretation." — AtnericaK  jfournal  o/" Sociology. 

The  Bargain  Theory  of  Wages. 

By  John  Davidson,  M  A.,  D  Phil.  (Edin.),  Professor  of 
Political  Economy  in  the  University  of  New  Bruns- 
wick.    i2mo,  $1.50. 

A  Critical  Development  from  the  Historic  Theories,  together  with  an  examin- 
ation of  Certain  Wages  Factors :  the  Mobility  of  Labor,  Trades  Unionism,  and 
the  Methods  of  Industrial  Remuneration. 

"  This  able  volume  is  the  most  satisfactory  work  on  Distribution  that  has  yet 
appeared.  Prof.  Davidson's  theory  appeals  to  our  common  sense  as  in  harmony 
with  actual  conditions,  and  he  has  worked  it  out  with  convincing  logic  in  accord- 
ance with  the  principles  of  economic  science  We  recommend  it  all  students  of 
economics  as  the  most  important  contribution  to  the  science  of  Political  Economy 
that  has  recently  appeared." — Interior. 

Sociology. 

A  Treatise.  By  John  Bascom,  author  of  "^Esthetics," 
"Comparative  Psychology,"  etc.     12°,  $1.50. 

"  Gives  a  wholesome  and  inspiring  word  on  all  the  living  social  questions  of 
the  day  ;  and  its  suggestions  as  In  how  the  social  life  of  man  may  be  made  purer 
and  truer  are  rich  with  the  finer  wisdom  of  the  time.  The  author  is  always 
liberal  in  spirit,  generous  in  his  sympathies,  and  wise  in  his  knowledge." — Critic. 

A  General  Freight  and  Passenger  Post. 

A  Practical  Solution  of  the  Railroad  Problem.  By 
James  L.  Cowles,  Third  revised  edition,  with  ad- 
ditional material.     12°,  cloth,  $1.25  ;  paper,  5octs. 

■'  The  book  gives  the  best  account  which  has  thus  far  be^n  given  in  English  of 
the  movement  for  a  reform  in  our  freight  and  passenger-^  '.riff  policy,  and  the 
best  arguments  in  favor  of  such  reform.  ' — Edmund  J.  James,  in  the  Annah  of 
Political  and  Social  Science. 

"The  book  treats  in  a  very  interesting  and  somewhat  novel  way  of  an  ex- 
tremely difficult  subject  and  is  well  worth  careful  reading  by  all  students  of 
the  transportation  question."  —  From  letter  of  Edw.  A.  Moselev,  Secretary  of 
the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission,  Washington,  D.C. 


Q.  P.  PUTNAM'5  SONS.  New  York  «&  London. 


113674 


DATE  DUE 


UCSD  Libr. 


CI  39 


